A Jacksonville girl needs a bone marrow transplant to give her a fighting chance against cancer, her mom said.
But the hardest part isn’t the transplant procedure, it’s finding a donor.
Naw-am Daniels said her daughter Destiny is just like any 9-year-old with hobbies, dreams and opinions.
“She loves to sing, she loves to dance. She’s really sweet,” she said.
But Destiny hasn’t been doing a lot of dancing lately. In April, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Since then, she’s spent a lot of time in the hospital.
And though her cancer is in remission, Daniels said it’s nearly guaranteed to come back unless her daughter receives a marrow transplant.
“The problem that we’ve kind of faced is that with her being a mix of African-American and Asian, there’s not a lot of people (like her) who are registered as bone marrow donors,” she said.
But that doesn’t mean people of other races can’t be a good fit. So she’s asking the community to get tested and donate if they can. She said after this experience, she’d do the same for someone else.
“Honestly, I think I’ve been blind to this need too until my daughter was diagnosed. As soon as I found out about this need, I myself registered because if I had another mom out there who was waiting for their baby to be cured, I’ll be right there,” she said.
The family is holding a screening drive for potential bone marrow donors Saturday June 27, 2016 from noon until 2 p.m. at Bailey's Gym, 8206 Philips Highway at Baymeadows Rd. The screening process involves a simple, non-invasive cheek swab.
For more information about how to become a blood marrow donor go to BeTheMatch.org.
In addition to asking for a possible donor, Daniels is taking donations to cover Destiny’s medical bills through a GoFundMe page.
