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Mason’s Toy Box, an organization that support families whose children are in life-altering medical battles, is organizing a bone marrow testing drive in Short Pump Thursday, Oct. 22, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Anyone between the ages of 18 and 44 may attend to give a saliva sample to find out if they are a match for two-year-old Ihanu Merrill of Richmond. Merrill was diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, a rare, serious, and chronic leukemia (cancer of the blood) that primarily affects children ages 4 and younger. While JMML itself is very rare, Ihanu’s case is rarer still: There is currently no good match for Ihanu in the global bone marrow donor database.
Ihanu's heritage includes Black, Native American, French and Italian blood lines. Bone marrow donations do need to be even more genetically similar than other organ donations, so organizers are particularly hopeful that people with any of those ancestries will attend.
The event will take place at 11861 West Broad Street at the site of the former Toys ‘R Us, across from Short Pump Town Center. Testing will be conducted in a drive-through format.
Pre-registration is helpful but not required. It is available at http://Join.BeTheMatch.Org/Masonstoybox.
