Staff Sergeant Lior Karchili, a fighter in the combat sweep-up unit, was chosen to receive the President’s Award of Excellence on Independence Day. But her excellence is not confined to her military achievements. Recently, she donated bone marrow to a cancer patient in order to save her life. 
Karchili (21) joined Ezer Mizion’s Bone International Bone Marrow Registry on the day of her induction to the IDF. About a half year ago, they informed her that she was found to be a match for a leukemia patient who needed a donation. A week before the donation, she began getting injections to increase production of stem cells in her bone marrow. On the day of the donation itself, she was hooked up for hours to a machine that drew the blood from her body and filtered out the stem cells.
“My parents were a little worried, but it saves life and demands virtually nothing from me. Yes, it’s a bit draining and maybe hurts a tiny bit, but that is really dwarfed by what it accomplishes,” she explained. “During the donation, I kept thinking that in another few hours, my bone marrow would be transplanted to someone else. I see it as a real privilege given to me, to save a life.”
Karchili is one of the many bone marrow donors who come from the ranks of the IDF. “The IDF has become the greatest resource of all for the International Registry. The more we expand the Registry, the higher the chances of saving lives,” says Dr. Bracha Zisser, Director of Ezer Mizion’s International Registry.
