CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A Virginia family is desperately searching for a blood stem cell donor for their 9-year-old son, who has leukemia, but finding the right match presents unique challenges.
Cayden Addison is currently in remission, but there's a chance the cancer could return and keep him in and out of the hospital. His mother, Courtney Addison, says seeing her son wear a hospital bracelet weighs heavily on her.
"No parent should have to experience this. This is a chapter I thought was going to be closed after his first round of chemo, and unfortunately, we are still fighting this," Courtney said.
Previous coverage: 7-year-old Chesapeake boy needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life
Cayden has been battling blood cancer most of his childhood and requires ongoing treatment.
"He has to go to the hospital once a month. He has to get bone marrow biopsies, and that's how they check to see if the leukemia cells are growing or not. He also needs to get chemo every single day," Courtney said.
The family wants better for Cayden, but a special kind of donation called a blood stem cell transplant is needed to help essentially reset his immune system.
"Unfortunately, myself, his dad, and his brother got tested, and none of us are matches, which is disheartening because obviously I'd be the first person on that table if I could be," Courtney Addison said.
Dr. Ronald Sham, a hematologist with Rochester Regional Health, explained why a donor is hard to come by in Cayden's case, describing blood cells as puzzle pieces.
"If you picture blood cells as round spheres and they have proteins on the surface of them that look like puzzle pieces, the different races have different combinations of puzzle pieces, and they have to fit perfectly to be compatible in the other body," Sham said.
There's a problem with the donor pool, according to Erica Sevilla with NMDP, formerly known as the National Marrow Donor Program, which manages the national registry of blood stem cell donors.
"Black and African American patients are only going to find a fully matched donor 29% of the time on the registry," Sevilla said.
"So if there are more varied races to donate, the more likely you will find a compatible person in the community," Sham said.
According to NMDP, becoming a donor is simple.
"You take a swab, you swab the inside of your cheek for 10 seconds, and with the two swabs, you are going to return them to NMDP, and then you will be typed to determine if you are a match for a patient like Cayden or somebody else," Sevilla said.
Information about how to donate is available by clicking the link here.
In the meantime, the Addison family is holding onto hope and to each other.
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