Meet my friend Ann, and her youngest son Liam. I have known Ann since first grade. She and I started elementary school together, then we went to high school together, then she moved to Southern California while I went to a junior college back home. When my roommate Jenn and I, who also went to high school with Ann, the two of them were practically inseparable, moved to Southern California for school I got to hang out with Ann a lot more. She and I would spend our Summer’s tanning and loading up on Caramel Frappuccinos, while perfecting our Britney Spears dance moves. Ann has since moved back to Northern California and married an awesome guy named Jeff. Together they have two little boys, Cole who is three, and Liam who turned one a few months ago. The last time I saw Ann was when she was still pregnant with Liam, so unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to meet the little guy, but this blog post is actually about him. A few months ago Liam was diagnosed with a disease called HLH. It is an extremely rare disease that requires chemo, spinal taps, MRIs and possibly bone marrow transplants, but it is not cancer. Since the diagnosis Liam has had good days and bad days, and if you have children of your own you can imagine how hard those bad days can be on Ann and Jeff. Liam has had to spend nights alone in the hospital because he was so sick. Through all of this Ann and her sisters have kept everyone up to date through the power of Facebook. Because of this I came to realize how important it was to become a bone marrow doner. What if I am able to help Liam or another person out there. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to help my friend, or a total stranger whose life I could save. So tonight my swab kit came in the mail. It took me about five minutes to take four swabs of my cheek cells which I will send off to the bone marrow registry, who will let me know if I am a match for anyone in the future. If you are interested in helping someone you may or may not know, and are willing to donate some marrow, check out this link. http://www.marrow.org/
Liana, you are a very special young lady, wife and mother. Verna and I are so privileged to have you as our daughter-in-law (daughter). Your caring, giving spirit should be a impetus for others to follow your example.
Liana, Verna and I are privileged to have you as a “daughter”. You are an awesome daughter-in-law, wife and mother. Hopefully your decision will cause someone else to follow your lead.
Liana, you made me cry! Thank you SO much for spreading the word, you are awesome. If you want, you can add the Love4Liam promo code to your post so people can get it free (it’s free till the end of the year anyway, but this way we can track how many people became donors because of Liam).
And I love how you lumped yourself in with me on the whole Britney Spears dance moves thing, thanks for not making me out to be the LONE dork.
Love you! Hope to see you soon, let me know when you’re up here next.
Ann
[...] One, But Three. November 18, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized — lianadickson @ 9:15 pm Update on a previous post. The doctors have found not one bone marrow match for little Liam, but three. If everything works [...]