For 18-year-old leukemia survivor Elijah John, meeting his life-saving bone marrow donor was a moment he once thought might never come. On a sunny afternoon at Manhattan’s Pier 57 on Saturday, the Brooklyn native and his family gathered to finally meet Nicholas Miranda-Newberry, the man who saved Elijah John’s life three years ago.
“He’s a godsend. That’s the best way to say it: Nicholas is a godsend,” said Elijah John’s father Karl John, a property manager in Brooklyn.
Elijah John was diagnosed with leukemia at 14 years old in November 2020 after a persistent toothache led to a blood cancer diagnosis. His family explained that the diagnosis resulted in several surgeries, as reported by the New York Post.
RELATED STORIES
“He was always healthy — it wasn’t something he was born with,” Elijah John’s father said. “We started to lose hope, to be honest with you.”
“The first four months, the chemo didn’t take,” said Elijah John’s mother, Queens pharmacy technician Chawn Tucker. “It was one of the scariest moments that I ever in my life endured. And watching Elijah going through the chemo, losing his hair, and being sick, I just kept praying.”
“I feel like it was just me being stuck in a room for months at a time,” Elijah John said of the chemotherapy process. “I didn’t let it affect me, but eventually I started missing my friends. I ghosted the whole world. I didn’t talk to anybody – I didn’t want anybody to feel bad for me.”
According to the family, Elijah John’s hair and teeth fell out after he began chemotherapy – all before Miranda-Newberry was identified as a match and gave him a “second chance at life.”
Miranda-Newberry, a 25-year-old Chicago resident and avid world traveler, signed up to donate bone marrow at 18 after seeing a DKMS ad on social media. After sending a cheek swab to the blood cancer research nonprofit, he was contacted four years later and informed he was a match for Elijah John.
Miranda-Newberry has also been a plasma donor for the past two years.
“The bone marrow transplant, it was difficult — but I was able to get through the whole process, and I believe [that by] doing that I was able to save a person’s life,” the donor told The Post. “I would honestly do it again.
“I’ve just always been a person who wants to be able to help people like that,” he added.
On Saturday afternoon, just before 5 p.m., Elijah John saw Miranda-Newberry, the man who saved his life, for the first time. Overwhelmed with emotion, Elijah John greeted Miranda-Newberry with a beaming smile and a long embrace.
The touching reunion brought tears to Elijah John’s parents, who had feared losing their son to blood cancer.
“[It’s] unbelievable,” added Tucker, 51. “There’s no word that I could even put into this moment right now. I didn’t think this day would have happened — I could not wait to meet Nicholas.”
The teen presented Miranda-Newberry with a plaque on Saturday expressing his gratitude, which read in full:
“Nicholas, [taking] a moment to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your incredible generosity in donating your bone marrow to me. Your selfless act has given me a new lease on life and I am beyond grateful. Your kindness and willingness to help a stranger in need is truly inspiring. Because of you, I have a chance to look forward to a healthier future. Thank you for being my hero. You are a lifesaver.”
The reunion of Elijah John and Miranda-Newberry marks new beginnings for both. As Elijah John, an 18-year-old cancer survivor and aspiring engineer prepares to start college at New York City College of Technology, Miranda-Newberry is celebrating his six-month wedding anniversary.
The experience has created a lasting bond between the two families, with Elijah John’s family now commemorating the bone marrow transplant anniversary as a “new birth” for the Brooklyn teen.
“Elijah and Nick — it’s a wonderful story but unfortunately, that doesn’t happen that often because not enough people are registered, so moments like this when you can actually see the full circle from registration to donation to the actual impact, it’s really inspirational for a lot of people,” said DKMS spokesperson Maya Ward, adding that 70% of people in America with blood cancers rely on donors outside their families.
