Daughter donates stem cells, 11 years after Morristown dad's death

Thirteen years ago, April Tribus was entrenched in holding blood stem cell and bone marrow drives to try to find a match for her ill father, now-deceased Morristown Fire Department firefighter Chris Trumpf.

On Monday morning, Tribus wore a T-shirt emblazoned with her late father's image as she settled in a chair at the Hoxworth Blood Center in Cincinnati to undergo a four-hour procedure of having stem cells removed from her blood.

Tribus, 46, of Cecilia, Kentucky, learned several months ago that she was a potential stem cell match for a 35-year-old man diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

The match was verified and Tribus started a rigorous regimen that included a full physical and daily injections to stimulate the mass production of bone marrow in her bones. On Monday, the actual donation of stem cells was under way.

"It's been very emotional," Tribus said, moments before the procedure. "I'm wearing my Dad's shirt from 2001. My hope and prayer is that the man I'm donating to makes it and that in a year we'll meet, if he wants to."

Morristown Fire Department Capt. Bob Whitehead said he was Chris Trumpf's best friend and is thrilled that his daughter is trying to help another man live.

"Thirteen years after trying to help her father, April is a match for a 35-year-old man. She has come full circle," Whitehead said.

April Tribus, a 48-year-old mother of four married to an Army colonel, was accompanied by her mother, Debbie Trumpf, to Ohio. Trumpf said that if all goes well, she and April will be with family in New Jersey to celebrate Christmas.

Tribus, who grew up in Morris County, joined the National Bone Marrow Registry in the early 1990s after hearing promotions by NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon. When her father was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia in 2001, Tribus grew better versed on the subject of bone marrow transplants and stem cell donations. She organized drives to find a donor for her father – and also to help anyone in need across the country.

Chris Trumpf was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia, a specific type of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Also known as "smoldering leukemia," it's a precancerous condition in which the bone marrow slowly stops making blood cells and platelets, which help clot blood.

Debbie Trumpf said she brought to Ohio the diary she kept when her husband underwent a bone marrow transplant in Seattle in 2003. She said she hopes to read some of the diary passages to her daughter.

"I'm very proud of what April is doing. You're not just giving someone blood or bone marrow, you're giving them the chance for life," Trumpf said. "This just brings back everything that happened with Chris and it makes us rejoice that April may be saving a life."

Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@GannettNJ.com.