{"id":295508,"date":"2026-09-28T12:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/295508\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:08:10","slug":"stem-cell-donor-registration-drive-held-in-wyomissing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/295508\/","title":{"rendered":"Stem cell donor registration drive held in Wyomissing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time Tom Hoch was diagnosed with cancer he was devastated and terrified. The second time, it was worse.<\/p>\n

The 65-year-old Alsace Township man didn\u2019t have any sense he was sick back in 2004. He was asymptomatic, other than a dull ache in his lower back.<\/p>\n

At the urging of his wife, Cathy, he went to the doctor and ultimately underwent an ultrasound. The test detected testicular cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a punch in the gut when you hear that word \u2014 cancer,\u201d Hoch said.<\/p>\n

The good news was that the stage 3 cancer was treatable with a fairly high success rate. The bad news was that the treatment was harsh.<\/p>\n

Hoch was able to manage the difficult treatment, ridding himself of the grapefruit-sized tumor in his abdomen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt cured me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For a little while, Hoch was able to revel in his relief. He had fought cancer, and beat it.<\/p>\n

But in 2006, the battle began again.<\/p>\n

During a routine blood test, doctors detected something wrong. It was terminal leukemia.<\/p>\n

\u201cTerminal, that was a different ballgame,\u201d Hoch said. \u201cI heard it and was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to die from this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, Hoch\u2019s only option was a difficult one. This time, it was a stem cell transplant. He underwent the procedure in January 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cure almost killed me,\u201d Hoch said. \u201cMy body knew the cells weren\u2019t mine, it wreaked havoc on my body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoch was hospitalized for about eight months, slipping in and out of consciousness as his body pushed back against the intruders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree times they were ready to pronounce me dead,\u201d Hoch said.<\/p>\n

But he didn\u2019t die. His body eventually accepted the stem cells, which did their job and attacked his cancer.<\/p>\n

The procedure gave Hoch a second lease on life.<\/p>\n

To celebrate his \u201crebirthday\u201d when he got his transplant, Hoch hosted a special stem cell donor registration drive Saturday.<\/p>\n

Held at RE\/MAX of Reading in Wyomissing, the event invited people to stop by, have their cheeks swabbed and register to be on the national stem cell donor registry. It was done in partnership with DKMS<\/a>, an organization dedicated to fighting blood cancers.<\/p>\n

By joining the registry, donors can be called upon when a patient somewhere in the U.S. needs a stem cell transplant. If they agree to give, donation consists of having blood taken, which is then run through a machine that pulls out the stem cells before the blood is returned to the donor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people hear the word \u2018transplant\u2019 they think surgery, but that\u2019s not this,\u201d Hoch said. \u201cIt\u2019s so simple, but amazing what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s because someone went through that \u201csimple\u201d process that Hoch is alive today.<\/p>\n

A man named Tony from California was at a garlic festival when he came across a mobile stem cell donor registration station. He went in and signed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said it seemed like the right thing to do,\u201d Hoch said, explaining that he was eventually able to meet Tony. \u201cWithout him I wouldn\u2019t be here. When I saw him I said, \u2018Tony, I don\u2019t have the words. I just want to give you a hug and say thank you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Forry swabs while holding his son, Jayden, 2, during a stem cell donor registration drive at RE\/MAX, 1290 Broadcasting Road, Wyomissing, on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n

Josh Forry hopes he can do for someone else what Tony did for Hoch.<\/p>\n

He heard about Saturday\u2019s drive through Hoch, a co-worker at RE\/MAX. For him, signing up to donate just made sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give blood \u2014 I actually have an appointment Tuesday \u2014 and this isn\u2019t all that different,\u201d he said. \u201cI donate because if I ever needed it I would be grateful for someone to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoch said he was touched by people like Forry stepping up to help. He said that through his cancer journey has has received an unbelievable amount of support from friends, family, co-workers and the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt give me chills to think about what people have done for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For more information on stem cell donation or to become a donor visit dkms.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first time Tom Hoch was diagnosed with cancer he was devastated and terrified. The second time, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,1057,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-295508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-health","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}