John Hyland, the 48-year-old co-founder and managing director of the RIA Private Advisor Group, in Morristown, N.J., is scheduled to receive a bone marrow transplant Friday, April 3, to treat his acute myeloid leukemia.

The procedure is the culmination of an extraordinary effort by Hyland’s work colleagues at the Private Advisor Group and its broker-dealer LPL Financial, as well as friends, acquaintances and family to find a match in a last-ditch gambit to save his life.

“It’s heartwarming and heartbreaking,” said Abby Salameh, chief marketing officer for Private Advisor Group, who spearheaded the social and traditional media blitz to urge people to have their cheeks swabbed and become part of the Be The Match Registry to see if they might be a match for Hyland or others in a similar situation. The drive, which continues even though a match – a 26-year-old male – was found for Hyland has resulted in 1,300 being tested since it began shortly after Hyland’s cancer resurfaced last September. He had been in remission for four-and-a-half years.

It is heartwarming because so many have pitched in to help, Salameh said. Heartbreaking because there is no guarantee that the transplant will work and it is a shame that such a dynamic active man has been hobbled for months at a stretch by illness, and faces several more months of arduous treatment and recovery, she said.

Hyland is upbeat about his prospects, without any false bravado or sugarcoating the reality of his situation, she said.

“He’s such an amazing person and fantastic guy,” Salameh said. “He’s gregarious and always finds the humor in every situation.”

The people at Private Advisor Group look forward to his return, she said. The company has 20 full-time employees, $6 billion in assets under management and 500 financial advisors in 32 states.

“If you look in the dictionary under ‘good guy,’ you will find John’s picture,” said Bill Dwyer, who has known Hyland since 1998, when he recruited him and his company when Dwyer was head of business development for LPL Financial. Dwyer is now chief executive officer for Realty Capital Securities in Boston.

Dwyer is also chairman of the charitable foundation Invest In Others, where Hyland is a board member.

“He’s outgoing and affable,” Dwyer says of Hyland, who lives in Morristown with his wife, Kristin, and their three children. He also competitive in all that he undertakes, in business, charity fundraising and athletics, Dwyer said.