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The Review February 16, 2016 DIXON
Cheek, please Parents fortunate enough to find help for their daughter is asking others to help save a life BY JERMAINE PIGEE
DIXON – Greer Bond is a sweet, cheerful 2-year-old. To look at her, you’d never know she has leukemia. “Last spring, around Easter, we started noticing little things, such as random fevers,” said Courtney Bond, 30, Greer’s mother. “We also noticed bruising on her stomach and face.” On April 20, Greer was diagnosed with Philadelphia Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, or Ph+ ALL. After several rounds of chemotherapy, doctors concluded that her best chance to grow up with her family is a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately for her, a match was found last week, and surgery is scheduled for March 23. In honor of Greer, and thousands of other patients who need a transplant, the Bond family is sponsoring a donor registration drive Tuesday at KSB Hospital. To join the National Bone Marrow Registry, donors ages 18 to 60 give a simple cheek swab, which is used to determine
their tissue type. “We know many people personally that need a transplant who are looking,” Bond said. “We reached out to the American Red Cross to help us host the donor drive.” She and her husband Kel, both 2003 Dixon High School grads, have another daughter, 5-year-old Harlow, and are expecting a baby boy in May. The family and the Red Cross also held a registration drive Thursday at CGH Medical Center in Sterling, and 119 people signed up. “We had no idea what to expect at CGH,” said Jan Woodward, Courtney’s mother. “We were overwhelmed with the amount of people who signed up to register.” Greer will be spending the next 4 months at a Chicago hospital undergoing “one last intense round of chemotherapy to try to get the leukemia out of the bone marrow,” Bond said. “This is a difficult time for her, and everyone,” Woodward said.
Photos by Alex T. Paschal
Greer, 2, and big sister Harlow, 5, sit with parents Courtney and Kel Bond on Tuesday in their Dixon home. In honor of Greer, and thousands of other patients who need a transplant, the Bond family is sponsoring a donor registration drive Tuesday at KSB Hospital, where people can join the National Bone Marrow Registry with a simple – but potentially lifesaving – swab of the cheek. Greer’s mom Courtney helps her put on a mask Tuesday as they play in their Dixon home.
To help
Q&A What happens when you send your swabs back to Delete Blood Cancer? Swabs are sent to a lab to be analyzed and tested for HLA tissue markers. HLAs are Human Leukocyte Antigens, or characteristics of human white blood cells. These protein “markers” are found on most cells in your body. Once HLA markers are identified, the person’s tissue type is entered anonymously into the U.S. national bone marrow donor registry – “the lifesaver list” – and assigned a donor number. The database is linked to global registries, searchable for any patient around the world. What does it mean to be on the registry? Once you’re on the registry, you are on standby to save a life. Be ready to donate, and willing to donate to any patient in need. Will you become a match for a patient? You could be called as a potential match within weeks of registering. Or, perhaps it will take years. There is a chance that you might never be called, but if you do get called, there is a good chance you are the only one who can save that patient’s life. On average, less than 1 percent of people on the registry will actually donate to a patient. – Source: deletebloodcancer.org/en/SwabtoHLA
Those who are interested can go to DeleteBloodCancer.org to register, make a donation or learn more about the process. Find Cheer 4 Greer on Facebook to follow Greer’s journey. Go to gofundme.com/ greerbondstrongllc to help defray the Bond family’s medical expenses.
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