Former Olympic gold medalist is coming to Central Texas to raise awareness for treatment that saved his life

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A 1960 Olympic gold medal winner who also once graced the cover of Sports Illustrated is making a stop in Central Texas hoping to get more people signed up to be a potential blood stem cell or bone marrow donor, an act which saved his life.

Earl Young, 82, now lives in Dallas and says without a donor in Germany in 2011, he would have died from Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

“Just one week before I was diagnosed, she had signed up to be a bone marrow donor and as it turned out Christine was the only match for me,” Young said. “The only DNA match out of 22 million on file. I’m alive today because one person chose to become a bone marrow donor.”

Young is now traveling the country with a group he founded called Earl Young’s Team and making a stop next weekend at Crestview Church of Christ in Waco for a drive.

The mission is to defeat blood cancer through donor awareness.

Young said he never imagined he’d be in need of a donor.

The elite athlete was known for his good health.

He was only 19 when he was a runner at Abilene Christian University and earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

When he was featured in Sports Illustrated, the author went into great detail about his power in an article titled “Another Fast Christian From Abilene.”

The author wrote he was “huge, for a dash man, standing almost 6 feet 4 inches tall, with broad shoulders and long, beautifully muscled legs, which carry him over the ground at eight feet a stride. He is smooth enough, but the main impression one receives while watching him run is of tremendous power. He looks as though he could run right through a brick wall.”

After his illustrious career as a runner, Young went on to have a successful career as an advisor, corporate officer and director for Fortune 5,000 companies and investment banking firms.

He also is president and CEO of Madagascar World Voice and assisted World Christian Broadcasting with the building of a shortwave radio station in Mahajanga, Madagascar.

In 2011, life for Young changed.

He had always been so healthy he hadn’t bothered to get a physical in four years.

It was a simple cough that sent him to the doctor with an outcome that changed his life.

“I had a little sniffle and cough that I couldn’t get rid of, and I thought I better go get a shot or a pill to knock this out,” Young said. “And he said Mr. Young I have some bad news. You have Acute Myeloid Leukemia.’ I said, ‘how long do I have?’ He said, ‘maybe three months.”

Young underwent chemotherapy but a stem cell transplant was his only hope at life.

Waag’s donation saved his life.

Amy Roseman is the managing director of the team and said the process to get in the registry only takes about 6-minutes, is pain-free and no cost.

“Most people don’t realize that a simple cheek swab puts you in a worldwide database to be a potential life saver for a patient who is looking for an unrelated donor,” Roseman said.

If found to be a matching donor most of the time the patient need stem cells from the bloodstream, which again, Amy adds, is a simple process.

“The extraction process is very similarly to donating plasma or platelets. It takes a morning or an afternoon. The donors are awake. They are hooked up to a machine. Blood is taken from one arm. The stem cells are removed from a patient and the blood is returned to the donor’s other arm.”

All expenses, including lost wages and childcare are covered.

The Earl Young Team’s donor drive will be held Sunday, July 9 from 9:00 a.m. to noon at Crestview Church of Christ in Waco.

In order to donate you need to be between the ages of 18-55 and be in good health.

For more information go to Earl Young’s Team (earlyoungsteam.org)