Josh Trombley ’99 played in many memorable lacrosse games when he was an undergraduate business major at Drexel in the late 90’s, racking up 12 wins in his senior year. Yet the most meaningful game of his life occurred 25 years later, at a Drexel-Lafayette lacrosse contest he didn’t play in at all.
That particular game was in late February 2024, when Trombley and his family made a trip to Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, that they will never forget.
Years before, Trombley had become registered as a stem cell transplant donor and had hardly thought about it since. He had registered while working after graduation at St. Leo College in Florida. The college had operated a staff vs. student challenge to drive registration in Be The Match, a registry of potential donors from around the world now known as National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). NMDP strives to match donors by blood protein markers with those in need of a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. Most recipients are fighting blood cancer like leukemia, lymphoma or multiple myeloma.
Life carried on, and Trombley eventually headed back to the Rochester, New York, area to raise three children with his wife Meg, close to where he had grown up playing lacrosse in Penn Yan.
He became a successful businessman, owning a few restaurants in the Finger Lakes region while enjoying lacrosse on the side, which ran in his family. His father Steve owns a business, Hot Bed Lax, which makes lacrosse goals and netting for colleges, schools and other sporting facilities. His brother is the head coach at Keuka College in New York, and both his sisters love the sport, too; one was a captain for the Syracuse lacrosse team, and the other played at Hofstra.
Fall 2022 seemed like any other in upstate New York. That all changed when Trombley received an email from Be The Match. Was it spam? Then he got another, and he knew it was real. Susie Watson, a 20-year-old college student from Austin, Texas, needed a life-saving stem cell transplant. After 25 years on the registry, he was being asked to cure Watson of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Two stem cell transplants later, Watson is in remission and is finishing her junior year at the University of Texas at Austin. For a whole year, Trombley and Watson wrote back and forth anonymously before they were allowed to exchange contact information. Once they could openly communicate, they began planning to meet in person.
Josh Trombley with Susie Watson, who matched with Trombley for a vital stem cell transplant.
In a twist of fate, Watson’s long-time boyfriend, who had been her primary caretaker throughout her treatment, is also a college lacrosse athlete. Cade Kilbride is a junior defensemen on the men’s lacrosse team at Lafayette College, which happened to be where the Drexel Dragons were scheduled to play on Feb. 20.
They agreed to meet up at the game at Fisher Stadium in Easton. Watson flew from Texas and the Trombley family drove down on a cold Tuesday. It was an emotional evening for all involved, as they enjoyed dinner, exchanged stories and watched a competitive lacrosse game. Thanks to the Be The Match/NMDP program, these two former strangers now have a lifetime bond strengthened by a sport that means so much to the both of them.
Watson also is the founder and president of a nonprofit called Thrive Society Foundation, which fundraises for cutting-edge clinical trial cancer research.
To learn more, visit thrivesocietyfoundation.org.