The phone buzzed with a text. As Kyle Lovelock (Huntingdon College, ‘22) groggily lifted it to his face, what he would find on the other end of that screen would change the course of his life forever. The text from his brother, Donovan, a guiding force in Lovelock’s life since the death of his uncle his freshman year, lit up again: Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I’m in the hospital, they found a tumor in my chest.
Lovelock was a junior at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama when he received the news that his brother was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, an aggressive form of cancer of the bone marrow. This was also during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic therefore Lovelock was unable to rush to his brother’s side. Lovelock was desperate for any way he could help his brother which is when he found Be the Match.
Lovelock immediately signed up to see if he could be a match for his brother to donate bone marrow. To Lovelock’s complete devastation, he and his brother were not a match.
“It was really disappointing because I should have been, that’s my brother,” said Lovelock.
With rigorous treatment, luckily, Donovan went into complete remission in October of 2022.
But then something happened that Lovelock was not expecting.
Shortly after his brother went into remission, Be the Match contacted Lovelock telling him that he was a match for a 60-year-old cancer patient in Colorado.
Lovelock had a big decision to make. Would he undergo a seven-hour-long process to donate his bone marrow to a stranger?
As Lovelock was contemplating his decision, he was reminded of one of the core values taught through his membership in Lambda Chi Alpha: strength through service.
“Our advisor, Donnie Sasser, really implemented into us that service was more than just writing a check and was really about doing acts of service,” said Lovelock. “I think that’s what really kind of helped draw me to Be the Match and really helped me do this, because it was something I could physically do; it was not something where you just write a check and you’re kind of done but something that you can actually get your hands on and do as an act of service.”
Lovelock decided that this was a higher power telling him that while he wasn’t a match for his brother, he could still pay it forward and save a life.
Over the course of several days, Lovelock traveled from Tampa to Chicago to Wisconsin to undergo the treatment. Once complete, Lovelock’s stem cells and marrow were flown to Colorado, where Lovelock has since received word that the cells took in the patient to create a clearer path towards recovery.
Through Lovelock’s incredible journey filled with shock, pain, and hope, his Brothers in Lambda Chi Alpha have been constant.
“My Brothers really did a lot for me in being there, because especially after I found that I couldn’t end up doing a stem cell transplant or bone marrow transplant for him [Donovan], I felt very helpless,” said Lovelock. “They [Brothers] were just there for me, really taking my mind off things and really helping me set up a routine and keeping my mind busy.
“Words can’t describe how thankful I am for that.”
Lovelock encourages his fellow Brothers across the Global Zeta to find ways in which they can get involved and serve in their community. If it weren’t for Lovelock’s willingness to serve his fellow man, he reckons, a cancer patient in Colorado might not have had a second shot at life.
“My Brothers rallied around me during a time in my life where I felt disappointed in myself, and when I got this opportunity, it really felt like a chance to do it right,” said Lovelock.
“With my brother getting healthy, it really felt like this is how things were meant to be.”
