Miss America 2019 Nia Franklin saved her father’s life thanks to a stem cell donation

The most amazing accomplishment of Nia Franklin’s life so far isn’t necessarily being crowned Miss America 2019 on Sept. 9. It’s saving her father’s life. Franklin’s father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma T-cell cancer when Franklin was a freshman in college. “His kidneys were failing,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “He had no appetite. He even had trouble kind of breathing.” Despite having chemotherapy and radiation, Franklin’s father relapsed twice. That’s when physicians suggested he try a stem cell transplant. “It turned out that I was a match — perfectly — and I wanted to be a part of helping to save his life.”