Harbert senior plays host to special guest, both lives forever changed

Her high school homecoming date lay on a hospital bed, dying but hopeful. He was diagnosed with leukemia. “We thought the chemo would save him. It didn’t,” she said, which meant he needed a successful transplant to survive. But a suitable match never came.

No one who could save him, did. 

Focused on a mission

Paige Keener is a senior at Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business, where she is majoring in supply chain management and minoring in aviation management. Upon graduation in May, she will go to work for GE Aerospace.

Among a constant flurry of activities ranging from busy classwork, making more memories in her senior-year love affair with Auburn, to loudly cheering for the men’s basketball team she so closely follows, Paige stays laser-focused on a mission she feels is much more important than any of that.

No one, who could, came in time to save her dear friend Trey back in high school, but the loss of him inspired Paige to do whatever she could to make a difference for someone else’s dear friend, or mother, or brother, or wife, husband, sister or perhaps child.

She became a bone-marrow donor, just in time to be found as a perfect match to save a man’s life.

Privacy laws and guidelines prevented her from knowing who the recipient was for more than a year, and even then, it was contact by a limited means as the two — donor and recipient — tried to gauge what would become of this act of kindness and sacrifice.

Last week, Paige, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and that man, from Wisconsin, met for the first time.

In Auburn, Alabama.

Our family is bigger now

Gregg Vosswinkel, a retired building inspector for the city of Milwaukee, was 65 when he received his life-saving bone marrow transplant from his then-unknown donor.

That donor was Paige, who not only took the time to get tested and make a donation, but returned to Auburn and actively began an awareness and recruitment effort to convince other students to do so.

When Gregg and his wife Cheryl learned about Paige and heard of her on-campus work to save lives like she did his, and after Paige sent him an Auburn hat from last year’s basketball Final Four run in San Antonio, it wasn’t long before they were planning a trip to Auburn University.

Paige and her mother met them and offered a campus tour.

“It’s a visit Cheryl and I will treasure for the rest of our lives. The university is unbelievably lucky to have a student like Paige. She’s truly one in a million,” he said.

“The obvious thing that I'm most grateful for is that Paige’s gift saved my life,” but that isn’t the only impression she made. “The most meaningful thing is that one so young is involved with something so significantly self-sacrificing to help a complete stranger. 

“Meeting Paige and her mom is one of the best moments of our lives,” Gregg said. “Our family is definitely bigger now. I just pray that after meeting me, Paige feels that making the donation was worth it.”

Auburn, sweet Auburn

Paige and her mother, Liz, discovered Auburn during an unplanned visit.

“My brother lives in Atlanta and we went to visit him and decided to stop at Auburn,” Paige said. “Auburn was sunshine and rainbows from the start. Yes, the weather, but the campus, students, faculty and staff, buildings, gardens; everyone was so happy and kind and it felt like home from the start.

“Auburn has given me more than I can imagine and I’m so thankful God placed me here.”

She continues to recruit student donors.

“Other students should consider doing something similar because if they were sick and in need of help, they would want someone like them to help out,” Paige said. “My role in promoting donations is helping Gift of Life Marrow Registry run drives on campus to recruit potential donors and raise awareness for the need.”

One Auburn hero to another

Knowing that Paige and now Gregg were big Auburn basketball fans, Duane Brandon, Harbert’s associate dean of research and its faculty athletics representative; along with Keven Yost, associate dean of academic affairs, decided to join the fun.

Brandon arranged for a surprise visitor while the touring party was on the floor at Neville Arena, and in came former Coach Bruce Pearl, affectionately known as BP. Shortly after, Coach Steven Pearl also met them.

Gregg was thrilled. “The opportunity to meet Coach Bruce Pearl and Coach Steven Pearl... and having our picture taken with them in your beautiful arena was just the icing on the cake. What a treat!”

Meanwhile, BP credited Paige for having reached out to him a year ago to get swab-testing for bone marrow donor prospects added to the annual AUTLIVE Cancer awareness program, which is sponsored by the Pearl Family Foundation.

“She came to me wanting to do more about bone marrow donations,” Pearl said, “and we went out and contacted a national organization about it," Pearl said. 

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"This year at the AUTLIVE game, which is Feb. 21 against Kentucky, we will have the swab test available here for the first time.” 

Bruce Pearl

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The test simply involves a cheek swab, and it will be part of several cancer-prevention awareness efforts at the game, including free PSA testing for men to test for prostate cancer, and information for women regarding breast cancer.

Gregg is grateful to be a living example of what it means.

“I hope to be around for many years yet. Cheryl and I are planning on doing a little traveling. I want to spend time with my grandkids,” he said. “And of course, keep in touch with dear Paige.”

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