HOUSTON — A 3-year-old girl from Magnolia is fighting for her life in a Houston-area hospital, waiting desperately for a blood stem cell transplant to fight her rare and deadly blood disorder.
Addyson Williams has aplastic anemia. Both Addyson's mom and Addyson's twin sister, Harper, tried donating bone marrow, but both transplants were unsuccessful.
Seventy percent of patients do not have a related match within their families, so they turn to Be The Match to find an unrelated donor.
Out of the 20 million members on the Be The Match Registry, none is a perfect genetic match for Addyson.
After months of searching, and seeing Addyson’s condition get worse, the family had to make the decision to move to a haploidentical (haplo) transplant, because there was not a perfectly matched donor for her on the registry.
She urgently needs a successful transplant as she is currently experiencing bone marrow failure, according to representatives for Be The Match.
”She doesn’t think that she’s sick. She doesn’t know what she has," said Addyson's mother, Ericha. "Our goal is just to spread awareness to save not just our child's life but the lives of every person out there seeking a donor."
Now, the family is turning to Addyson's father, Jeff, for her latest transplant, despite the unlikely odds of them being a match.
"There are days where you’re like, ‘I have nothing left to give,’ and in those moments it’s incredible how God sustains you," said Jeff. ”I’m her dad. I want to be the one to save her life.“
It only takes a cheek swab to join the registry, and potential donors will only be contacted for further testing if they are identified as a potential match for a patient battling a life-threatening blood cancer or disorder.
”Our prayer is that our story, our daughter fighting so hard, will save someone’s life, even if it’s not her own.“
To learn more about being a bone marrow donor, click here.
3-year-old girl from Magnolia fighting aplastic anemia
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