Baby King needs a bone marrow donor. Can you help?
![King Nazir Leon, 2, needs a bone marrow transplant, the only cure for a rare disease that affects his immune system. Photo by Mike Greenlar/Syracuse Media Group.](../images/2016/01/babyking.jpg)
King Nazir Leon, 2, needs a bone marrow transplant. Potential donors can register today at Upstate's Setnor Hall and Cancer Center. Photo by Mike Greenlar/Syracuse Media Group
Would you take 20 minutes to try to save Baby King from this disease?
![Tesha English collects tissue samples by swabbing her mouth with a Q-tip, a key component to registering as a marrow donor, 2008.](../images/2016/01/english.jpg?w=300)
Tesha English collects tissue samples by swabbing her mouth with a Q-tip, a key component to registering as a marrow donor. Photo by Susan Keeter.
King loves Mickey Mouse, Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles and his Grandma Honey. He likes listening to music, especially the hip-hop song, “Long Live the King,” created for him by Makhai “Truth Speaker” Bailey, a 16-year-old student at Syracuse‘s Henninger High School. Bailey, who is too young to donate himself, performs the song to raise awareness of King and his need for a marrow transplant.
King‘s mother plans to be at the marrow drive to thank the students and staff at Upstate for trying to find a donor. The marrow donor drive is open to the public from 10 a.m. to noon at Upstate's Setnor Hall atrium and 2 to 4 p.m. at the Upstate Cancer Center lobby.
If you are unable to attend today's drive, and would like to register as a marrow donor or host your own marrow drive, contact the the William G. Pomeroy Foundation at [email protected].
To learn more about the bone marrow registry, go to the national donor program, Be the Match.
To learn more about Baby King, read this Post Standard story.
What is a bone marrow transplant?
A bone marrow transplant is a life-saving treatment for people with leukemia, lymphoma and many other diseases. First, patients undergo chemotherapy and sometimes radiation to destroy their diseased marrow. Then a donor‘s healthy blood-forming cells are put into the patient‘s bloodstream, where they can begin to function and multiply. In order for a patient‘s body to accept these healthy cells, the donor‘s tissue type needs to match the patient‘s type as closely as possible. Patients who do not have a suitably matched donor in their family may search the National Marrow Donor Program Registry for an unrelated bone marrow donor or cord blood unit. –National Marrow Donor Program