>> cheryl: welcome to "beyond the headlines," i'm cheryl jennings. every year thousands of people of all ages are diagnosed with cancer such as leukemia or sickle cell or other

life-threatening diseases and many of them will die unless they get a transplant from a matching donor. according to the national american donor program, 70% of patients do not have a donor in their family. so they have to find an unrelated donor in order to save their lives. the barrier is finding a perfect match. the parents of san mateo boy are trying to find a bone marrow donor for him to save his life. it's been tough. guard crawford's school is trying to help him find a match. lyanne melendez filed this report last week from the school in san mateo. >> four-year-old kyle crawford as aelastic anemia. that means his bone marrow doesn't produce enough blood cells. >> this specific disease, is not producing any blood cells. it's not just anemia.

it's white blood cells and platelets, as well. he needs a new immune system. >> he has been in and out of the hospital and he urgently needs a bone marrow transplant. his father is caucasian and his mother is chinese. that makes it a big charge. >> he is mixed race, chinese-caucasian so we'll need a asian caucasian mixed donor. it makes it more difficult for him. >> there will beewould bone marrow drives this month. one will be haight ashbury free clinic. at the times is free and painless. donors must be between 18 and 60 years old.

if a match is found, stem cells are collected from the donor's blood. kyle's mother is encouraging people to join the bone marrow registry. >> parents can't imagine what it can be like. >> we have four-year-old carl crawford. he has been enjoying watching it tv. how long ago was he diagnosed? >> it's only been four weeks. we had suspicions probably two months ago, he started bruising easily. his skin tone changed. it was really while we in disneyland in december we became more concerned. we had him checked out on december 5th and he was admitted the same day. >> cheryl: so something was

seriously wrong. he has lots of energy and love to be held by both of you. mom, if we can ask you a question he looks like a normal four-year-old boy? >> very active. very passionate about a lot of different things. it's not just all but things, it's great. we have pancakes and what else, we play star wars. >> cheryl: david, when he had the blood draw, you knew something was really wrong? >> we could see it on the eyes of the doctor. we were concerned it was leukemia. we started a week process to try to determine what he has, it's a condition called aplastic anemia. he is not producing hardly any blood cells. >> cheryl: so what else. >> we have him quarantined at

home and when we go out we're very cautious. >> cheryl: you've been he e.r. twice, it's been hard on both of you? >> we're on edge. we're supposed to be within ten minutes have an emergency room if she should get a bacterial or fungal infection and they need to get on top of it right away. so so when we came here, we looked at the different emergency rooms if his conditions worsened. >> cheryl: you have to have a strategy at home? >> yes. >> so you have to be able to rush him there any moment. >> my employer has been wonderful. i'm so grateful for that. >> cheryl: you can't be away from him right now. is he doing right now?

>> right now we're on an outpatient basis. we've made it four or five days after being released from the hospital. he goes in every two or three days and he needs transfusions because he can't produce the blood cells. he is on medication and they are monitoring those levels. >> cheryl: we all want to help. you have a drive coming up. >> we have a drive coming up on january 14th. it's in the haight. at 558 clayton which is san francisco from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.. >> cheryl: the difficulty is he is bi-racial and you have a little girl? >> unfortunately she is not a match. there is one in four chance she would have been a match but it wasn't luck. >> cheryl: we hope that everybody is watching this right

now will register because if it didn't help kyle, it could help somebody else. >> cheryl: thank you, kyle. good job here. we thank you so much. we do have to take a break we're going to learn more about bone marrow transplants from specialists. stay with us, we'll be right back. male announcer ] for some reason those five food groups sound a whole lot better when you put them in a taco shell instead of a pyramid. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican. fantastic! pro-gresso ] they fit! okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less.

>> cheryl: welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we've been talking about bone marrow transplants and the need to get yourself registered to become a donor. many children are living with serious blood diseases. i had the pleasure of working with a summer camp co-founded by a bone marrow transplant specialists. it's fun and free and more importantly life changing for them. it's in the sierra foot hills. >> i love you all. >> you wouldn't know at first glance but all the kids of life battles with cancer. >> i was diagnosed december 3rd, 2009. >> cheryl: these survivors were the center of attention at home

because they have been so ill for so long. everybody at the camp has to work to the best of ability. that means cleaning tables and that is where i found my little friend. he was very nice to my photographer. >> nice, oh, cool! >> cheryl: the secret to their success is peer support. >> often in a school setting the kids feel separate from the rest of the crowd. they look different. they are bald or skinny or overweight. missing a limb or artificial joint. can't move around very well. it makes them feel like not capable. >> cheryl: here, kids learn there are no limits. >> they move the line up 20

yards away or get a bigger target. >> its family but kindness is the rule and not the exception. a lot of the counselors were wee former campers and they are taught kids are first. >> people come whatever they can accomplish to see themselves as stronger people. by doing that, the role modeling the kindness to others, they become those kinds of people. joining us is dr. michael amylon, professor at lucille packard children's hospital. it's a little more informal setting. >> cheryl: i've been going there for years and years and it's very special place? >> it actually is. it's a whole lot more fun being at camps than at the hospitals and for the families, its

healing environment. >> kyle you who have done bone donor transplants. what is it like for them? >> a child that has a disease, it makem eligible for a transplant, you know it's a serious issue and the family, some of the things david mentioned it turns your life upside-down. everything revolves around the illness and there is a fear that no parent wants to face. it's probably the worst nightmare, is having a child with such a life-threatening illness. >> is transplant a last resort? >> for some diseases it's the first treatment we offer. that is often when there is no alternative. it's an intense processes and requires a lot of time in the hospital. there is a lot of side effects

and a lot of medications that you can take for months and months. so certainly isn't anything one one would want to undertake. >> diseases like kleil have that upset the formation of blood, any blood basically. there are other diseases like sickle cell disease where the red cells are abnormal and don't work right. there are a lot of cancers, leukemia and in pediatrics there is whole range of other very unusual genetic disorders most people haven't heard of. that can be successfully treated with bone marrow transplantation >> cheryl: how much is taken out? >> from the donor, it depends on the size of the patient, you hae need to have the right number of cells. for a child like kyle you wouldn't need to take that much.

maybe a pint and a half. for a full-sized adult, it could be up to a couple quarts. it can be quite a bit. but it only represents about 5% of the bone marrow cells. even in the largest case, that gets replaced fairlyly. >> c quickly. >> cheryl: how quickly? >> probably the stem cells crucial once within a few days. and the others ones can take several weeks. some donors will actually have a blood transfusion replace those red cells and have that ready in the bank for them. >> cheryl: co-blood? >> core blood is an excellent source for those that don't have a living donor available. the wonderful thing about core blood, there is no risk to anybody. it otherwise gets thrown away

but it can provide an option that don't have a donor available. >> cheryl: for the patient, what is the recovery like? >> it's a long time. usually the patient is in the hospital for a minimum of a month. sometimes for several months. they take medications to modify their immune systems and within a year they are pretty much back to normal. when it works well then you have a especially with a child like kyle at the age of four you have a whole lifetime ahead of you. >> cheryl: thank you for your expertise. i will see you at camp. >> i'll be there. >> cheryl: we have to take a quick break. we'll have the story of a woman who donanananananananananananana

>> cheryl: welcome back. we've been talking about the bone marrow transplant and find

signing up on the life saving registry. there is a big push to get any mi authorities on the registry. one man's fight of leukemia and his actions are helping others. >> it's been only a year since a carol's son defied of cancer. his efforts to find a bone marrow match was posted on every social network site. the fact that he was part caucasian and part japanese made it nearly impossible to find fiend someone with similar markings. >> people started registering and everything, we found two matches. i was very happy. >> but his leukemia came back. like nick there are many people in similar you >> when you mix caucasian, two races together, you finding your match will be more difficult.

>> to the chances to finding a match for caucasian is 85%. for mixed race is it's much less. 30%. once you find the person you have to hope he or she is still on board. >> nick and his family and friends managed to get 3,000 people on the bone marrow registry. >> we have to get more people. >> reporter: a swab kit is all that is needed to register. if you are matched with a patient, 75% of the time it's a non-surgery procedure and governor swarzenegger allowed legislation for employees to get paid time off to make a donation. carol and her friends say there is a lot more to do to raise awareness. >> that we're continuing the fight. >> reporter: lyanne melendez, "abc 7 news". >> cheryl: and here with me in

the studio is ruby law, recruitment director at asian-american donor program and flower miller who donated her marrow to leukemia patient. it's such an important topic. it's how it recruits people. >> the asian-american donor program is local nonprofit group that helps blood cancer patients to help find bone marrow matches. goal is to educate the public and set up a donor drive in the community to register potential zbloerns when do you do that and where? >> a lot of places, colleges, churches, tell also or festivals and have potential donors. >> cheryl: flower, you were a donor? >> yes. >> cheryl: why did you get involved and why did you decide

to do that? >> i was actually working in ucsf and i my the benefits of any kind of transplant. they had a drive, i said why not. at the time it was a small vial have blood and i'll always be on the registry. >> cheryl: you were called in to donate? >> i was one of the potential donors and i was lucky that i got a match. knew about the patient, they were fighting leukemia. >> what was it like? it did hurt? >> it didn't hurt. the procedure, they got it from my hipbone. i was under general anesthesia.

i woke up a couple hours later. i had an overnight stay and was fine. >> cheryl: this is what it look like. can you show us what that is this? >> the registration clip. it takes ten seconds to get some samples and the registration process is complete. they are collected at the drive. we do it at the drive. >> cheryl: and then how long does it take once you have this? do they let you know, you are registered in the base and you get calls when there is a need? >> correct. >> cheryl: is that how it works? >> for ones that register, you will be on the registry until you turn 61 years old.

then ask for extra blood samples. >> cheryl: we have to take a break. when we come back we'll continue our conversation our friends from the donor program and

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>> cheryl: welcome back. joining us is is ruby law from the asian american donor program and flower miller. he is donating and i try to explain to it folks. would you do it again? >> yes, definitely. i would definitely do it again. i'm waiting for a phone call to do it again. i feel lucky to have a chance to do it. it's so important to get registered and be willing to donate.

a lot of people, think this situation that happened to us someone a friend or family member is going to be sick, but there is just that one person is going to help and might give you a chance to spend more time with your family. >> cheryl: the knist kyle's case is he is a bi-racial and how hard is it to find people? >> it's much harder for kyle's case. because you have to match the genetic time. if you are chinese person i most likely need a chinese donor so for kyle he is a chinese hsh caucasian mix so most donors will have to be mix. so it makes it more difficult. >> how easy is it able to donate? >> it's pretty easy.

about 25% the doctors will recommend a donation, we'll give the general anesthesia and we ex practicality from your pelvic bone and it will be replenished in four to six weeks. another method is peripheral blood donation. within 55 days of the up rejection the stem cells in your blood and on the fifth day we draw your blood out. and then it circulate in the machine and extract the stem cells. the rest of the blood will be injected back to in your body. so it's similar to platelet donation. >> cheryl: final thoughts, we have ten seconds left? >> i really encourage do what you can. get registered. if you are already registered make sure your information is updated. we have a lot of patients that

need help. you may be able to help kyle. >> i encourage everybody to come out. when you join the registry, you might be able to help kyle's life or any other patient. >> cheryl: thank you both so much. we have listings of all the upcoming drives on our website. we are out of time but a special thanks to all of our guests for joining us today. we have information on our website at abc7news.com also on facebook. you can follow me on twitter. i'm cheryl jennings. thanks so much for joining us. have a great week and we'll see you next time.