Dear TMPA,
One of the hardest things for Peace Officers to do is to ask for help. This challenge comes from hours and years of training and responding to calls where “WE” can handle anything and come out on top. We separate ourselves from those who need help so many times that when we need help; we don’t what to let people know that we are vulnerable to life’s challenges. Well, this is totally different when it comes to our children. This is the place that Joe Knight finds himself. Joe is the Chaplain for Law Enforcement here in Hunt County, Texas.

Joe moved here from Missouri in March 1996. Joe has been involved in Law Enforcement since 1984 as a Chaplain. Within four months, Joe had settled in as Worship Minister at Family Fellowship Church and began his Chaplain ministry with the Greenville Police Department, Constable’s Office and the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office. In 2000, Joe attended the Police Academy and became a licensed Peace Officer. Joe currently serves and the Warrant Officer for Precinct 1 here in Hunt County and is a proud member of TMPA.

Joe has literally given a huge part of his life ministering to Law Enforcement personnel. Joe has responded in the middle of the night, walked away from family gatherings, birthday parties and all other passions in life to respond to the spiritual needs of his friends and a large number of people to whom he didn’t even know. Joe has a response to people that encourages them. Joe has never been one to ask for personal help or complain about the things in life that challenge us all. Joe has went out on a limb in many ways for Law Enforcement, not for personal gain but because it was the right thing to do.

The Greenville Municipal Police Association has been given an opportunity to give back to Joe through his son Matt. This is probably the only way that Joe would ever accept this kind of charity. Joe’s son, Matt, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma on 12-24-2007. Matt is 22 years old, attending his third year of college for fulltime ministry work, engaged to be married and loves everything in life that we all do. Matt’s story began when he noticed he had a cough and was having a little pain when he swallowed and was having trouble breathing. This was on 12-23-2007. Matt had a large mass in the center of his chest. He began treatment on Christmas Day. Matt has since undergone one complete Chemo-therapy treatment and stem-cell transplant. This sent his cancer into remission. In July, Matt noticed a pain around his spine. The cancer had aggressively come back and the pain in his back was actually a tumor pressing on his spine. Matt went through another series of chemo-therapy and Radiation and is now in remission again.

Matt is need of another stem-cell transplant. The first stem-cell transplant was his own that had been harvested prior to the first round of treatments. This next transplant will need to come from a donor. There are currently about ten million donors on file and there were possibly 6 matches from this list. None of the donors were a close enough match his DNA. His mother, Shaunda and other family members were tested and no matches were found there. I am reaching out to Joe’s extended family in Law Enforcement and asking that you take part in a stem-cell donor drive that will take place across the great State of Texas.

The process is simple. A blood drive will take place in a community close to you and during the blood drive you can have a simple cheek swab done to check to see if your DNA is a close enough match to Matt’s. This drive may not be the answer to finding Matt’s stem-cell donor, but it could actually find a match for you, a loved one or someone whom you don’t even know should they get a similar diagnosis tomorrow. I have attached a link that offers a little factual information about Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Please consider this a request from our association to yours for us to combine efforts and make this a life saving effort. There has been an account set up for Matt at Carter Blood Care. Obviously any blood donation could be credited towards Matt, but more importantly we are looking for a match on the stem-cell end. If someone wanted to donate blood to another person during the blood drive, I am sure that this could happen as well.

A blood drive has been set up in Greenville where volunteers can go to donate blood or provide a DNA sample. It is set for October 9th at the following location:

Family Fellowship 401 Division St. at I-30 (exit 95)
Greenville, TX 75401

Matt’s information for blood donation credits:
Matt Virgel 8/14/1986 1702 La Fontaine Greenville TX, 75402

There is an expense associated with each swab, 52.00. Carter Blood Care has offered to reduce this to 25.00 per swab, using some funding through the National Bone Marrow Institute. Any type of assistance that TMPA can offer to help reduce this cost would be appreciated. It is Joe’s intention to pay for each swab so that no individual is out any money.

Obviously, we hope that the drive brings out more people and swabs than Joe could ever imagine paying for. There are a lot of people who will come and donate and pay for everything out of their own pocket and others may not be able to afford the expense. Anything you could offer would be greatly appreciated. There is a sense of urgency associated with this effort. Matt’s Doctor’s are hoping to do the stem-cell transplant in late October; since his bone marrow is completely useless due to the large amounts of radiation and chemo.

Thank you, Sergeant Steve Walden President, Greenville Municipal Police Assoc.
903-457-2908 o 903-217-9898 m
https://ssl.search.live.com/health/article.aspx?id=articles%2fmc%2fpages%2f1%2fDS00350.html&qu=Non+Hodgkins+Lymphoma