In today’s self-serving society, hearing about someone performing a completely selfless act is becoming a rarity. It’s just not that often someone goes out of their way to help a total stranger, just for the simple fact that they can.

I’ve recently had the distinct pleasure of crossing paths with a man who is doing just that, and he’s saving the life of a person he’s never met, knows nothing about and may never meet in this lifetime in the process .

Shawn Lariviere, 39, decided long ago, after hearing about blood marrow donation, that he would love the opportunity to become a potential donor. So after completing Mary’s Walk in the spring of 2009 and coming across a booth to sign up to become a donor he was all for it.

The drive, run by the organization DKMS Bone Marrow Center, made getting on the donor list pretty simple. Fill out a form, have your cheek swabbed with a Q-Tip to test your DNA and voila, you’re a potential donor.

The specific type of donation Shawn signed up for is called peripheral blood stem cell donation, in which the donor is hooked up to an IV in one arm that’s removing blood, which travels to a machine that removes the blood-forming cells. The blood then returns to the donors body via another IV in the other arm. The process takes between four and six hours.

What the collection does is, gather a mass quantity of blood stem cells which are then given to a patient who is potentially deathly ill with leukemia or other like diseases. The stem cells can turn out to be what saves that patient’s life.

“I wanted to be put on the bone marrow list because I know if I had leukemia the best shot at a donor is a brother or sister,” said Shawn. “Without a sibling match, your odds go from one in four for a match to one in 100,000.”

So when Shawn received an e-mail in March that he was a potential match he was pretty surprised.

“I know a bunch of people who have been on the list for up to 15 years and they’ve never been a match,” he said. “I’m a little emotional as the process is going on. The tests they do on you to make sure you’re healthy are at a cancer center so you see some of the people you could be donating to. It’s pretty intense.”

According to the National Marrow Donor Program, for a matched, unrelated donor transplant, overall survival rates after three years following the transplant are up to 60 percent.

After a few more tests to determine whether he was a ”˜perfect match,’ he received word that it’s all-systems-go for the transplant.

Starting Saturday, Shawn will receive a series of four shots of a synthetic protein called filgrastim to help stimulate the production of stem cells in his bone marrow and release them into his bloodstream.

Shawn won’t know anything about the patient he’s working to save until well after the process is finished, if at all. Then, if the patient wants, they can attempt to contact the donor, with the donor’s permission.

“It kind-of consumes you,” said Shawn. “Besides the day I got married, this is the second-best thing that”˜s ever happened to me. I would love to meet who it is but if they [don’t want to] then I understand, but I still think it would be cool to meet them.”

The most common side effects from the process are headaches, nausea, in some cases insomnia, sore back and muscle pain at the injection sites. The patient may be more tired than usual for several days to weeks following the procedure.

“In the grand scheme of things the sacrifice that I’m making is minimal compared to what the patient is going through.”

Within 48 hours of his donation, Shawn’s potentially life saving blood cells will be in the patient’s body.

“Wednesday is going to be a pretty great day. I don’t know really how I’m going to react,” he said. “I hope that I inspired some people to get on that list. It’s great that I can save this persons life, but even greater if I can get some other people to do this.”

Although Shawn may never know if he saved the patient’s life with this week’s transplant, he’ll carry the memory of this process for years to come. “If I never hear from them I think I’ll always wonder how they did.”

“It’s numbers they need. The more people they have on that list, the more potential they have to save another life. If I can get even 20 more people to get on there, plus donating my bone marrow I’ll feel like I’ve done a great job” said Shawn.

On the website, www.dkmsamericas.org, anyone can fill out a quick survey to begin the process of becoming a donor.

Shawn, I wish you the absolute best in this week’s life-altering adventure. I hope you do indeed inspire 20 to join the donor list. Make that 19, and thank you for the inspiration to join myself. Godspeed and good luck.

”“ Elizabeth Reilly can be reached at elizabethreilly1@yahoo.com.