10/06/2026
Haley Woods enrolled in nursing school because she wanted to help save lives, and she recently did just that.
Woods is in her final semester of Bevill State’s registered nursing program on the Hamilton campus and is eager to start her career in the medical field. Graduation in December will be a highlight of her year, for certain, but an opportunity over the summer changed her life and the life of a woman she has never met.
Several months ago, a representative from the NMDP (National Marrow Donor Program) came to Bevill State’s Hamilton campus to discuss the organization’s mission to find healthy cell donors to help people with blood cancers and disorders. The NMDP has a registry of volunteers willing to donate their stem cells or bone marrow. Woods said the NMDP representative asked the students if they would be willing to have their mouths swabbed to see if they could be a match for someone, and she said it’s a question she didn’t have to think twice about.
“As soon as they came in, I was like, ‘Yes, absolutely. I’m going to swab’ — never thinking that they would call me or that I would get matched with somebody,” Woods said.
Weeks went by, and Woods was driving home one day from clinicals when NMDP called — she was a match. She pulled off the roadway, trying to absorb the news and compose herself.
“I was crying just from happiness and disbelief that something like that could happen to me, that I could potentially be the one to save somebody’s life,” she said. “That’s why I went into this field was to help save lives.”
Soon after that phone call, Woods received a box of supplies in the mail in May. She had to travel to her local hospital to get labs drawn and complete a physical to make sure she was healthy enough to donate. All her tests came back normal, and she learned she would soon travel to Houston, Texas, to donate her stem cells. Next came the difficult part.
Five days before Woods would donate her stem cells, she had to start self-injections of a drug called filgrastim, which is used to boost white blood cells, specifically neutrophils. She had to give herself three injections daily up until the day of donation, and it was a painful process due to a common side effect of the drug — bone pain.
“That caused me to have a lot of bone pain. I’ve had muscle aches, but this was a different type of pain. It was pain in my sternum and my ribs,” she said. “That part was a little scary … but I kept driving. I was like, ‘If I feel like this, I can’t imagine how my recipient feels every day waking up.’ That’s what kept me going.”
Woods then traveled to Texas to donate her stem cells, which brought a new experience. She had never been on a plane before, which made her a bit anxious; however, she arrived in Houston safely, was provided a comfortable place to stay and transportation, and prepared to donate.
She was administered two IVs on donation day, August 26, and then the five-and-a-half-hour process began, where she said they took her blood from one IV, filtered it, and gave it back to her through the another IV. Her bone pain subsided afterward, and she was ready to return home.
“I’ve healed great. I haven’t had any problems or anything,” she said.
Woods doesn’t know much about her stem cell recipient, other than she is 65 years old and has Myelodysplastic syndrome, resulting in blood cells that are improperly formed or don’t work correctly. Some people with the disorder receive stem cell transplants to replace their bone marrow with that from a healthy donor. Woods said she can meet her recipient after one year if she consents.
“I’m very excited for that, and even if the recipient doesn’t decide to meet, that’s OK too. As long as I potentially helped save her life, then that is all that matters to me,” she said.
Woods said her profile is attached to her recipient for a year, should the person need another stem cell transplant. After one year, Woods can return to the donation registry, and she said she is willing to donate again. She’s 30 years old, and the cutoff age for donation is 35. Woods said she feels it’s part of her purpose to be in the registry.
“I want to save as many people as I can,” she said. “It made me feel so good in my soul. I knew that is what God was leading me to do. I knew I was supposed to do it. I just knew it.”
She continued, “It was a very wholesome experience and moment. It put a lot of things into perspective for me about how blessed I am to have the life that I have and how there are people out there who do need help. It’s just a blessing that I was able to be one of those people to try to make a difference. I will forever be grateful for being here in this nursing program and having the opportunity of them coming in and simply swabbing my mouth. It feels like everything just fell right into place like it should.”
Woods is now busy learning all she can before graduation in December. It’s not her first time at Bevill State. She attended the college after graduating from Sulligent High School in 2014 and was on track to major in nursing, but she started second-guessing her major and decided to take a break from school to work for a while. A few years later, she had a daughter and decided to go back to school.
“After I had her, I knew for a fact I was going back to school to be a nurse. I got everything back in line, got my GPA where it needed to be, and re-applied to the nursing program. I got accepted, and I started last summer,” she said. “Ever since then, I’ve just been rocking and rolling in nursing school, trying to do the very best I can. I want to make a difference, for sure.”
She works part-time as an LPN and has been completing a preceptorship at North Mississippi Medical Center Gilmore-Amory’s Emergency Department, where she has thrived.
“I love it so far, and it’s made me realize that I think that’s what I want to go into — either that or ICU. I really like it,” she said. “Amory is a great hospital. They have a great ER. My preceptor is great. I feel like I’m going to learn so much from her.”
She added, “You see a little bit of everything. It’s very fast-paced, but I love it. I never thought I was going to be the type to like that fast pace. I usually like routine and scheduled, but it’s been so fun. It’s surprised me.”
Her daughter is now 3 years old. “Everything I do is for her. She is my pride and joy, and my world,” she said. “My goals are to be the best mom that I can be but also be the best nurse that I can be … and continue to pursue my education and see where that takes me.”
Woods said she would eventually like to be a nurse practitioner and maybe one day be an instructor, inspired by her own instructors at Bevill State. Ultimately, she said she wants to positively impact people’s lives — as a nurse and as a stem cell donor. She encourages people to register and see if they are a match. More information about the process can be found at https://www.nmdp.org/.
“If I could sit down with a group of people, I would tell them to please do it. You never know the difference you’re going to make. You never know who out there could benefit from just a little bit of your time. I would just encourage people to do the best by everybody and try to make a difference,” she said. “I hope that somebody can read my story and be like, ‘Hey, I want to do that.’”
