Dubuque man coming 'full circle' by meeting recipient of his bone marrow

A Dubuque man donated bone marrow to an infant more than a year ago and he finally gets to meet her tomorrow.

Jacob Oswald landed on the bone marrow donor registry when he was at a Dance Marathon at Wartburg College in 2015. He never expected that a couple of years later he would get a call telling him he'd matched with someone in need.

There were six or seven other donors considered potential matches for this person, so Jacob went through additional tests. It was determined he was the best match.

He was weighing the decision to donate when he found out the recipient was a baby.

"Once we found out that it was for an infant, it’s like, you know we’ve got a one-year-old, we’ve got another one on the way, I can’t see myself not donating, not going through the process," Jacob explained.

Jacob donated and then learned the baby was a girl. With his own baby girl at home, he and his wife were very emotional.

"Soon as we found out it was a baby girl, you know it starts pulling at the heartstrings a little bit," he said.

His wife, Kendra said, "we have, you know a little girl and what would happen if we needed that? We would want somebody to be generous and donate.”

The family is traveling to Nebraska to meet the little girl and her family. They expect it to be an emotional trip.

"We know a little bit about them, not a ton," Jacob said. "So just being able to go out and meet them and let these two hopefully play a little bit, it’s exciting. It’s exciting to see everything come full circle.”

Jacob hopes his story inspires others to become a match. You can learn more about donating on