[ theme music plays ] >> good morning, and welcome to "new jersey viewpoint." i'm ken rosato. today we bring you the story of a young mother and son who went through their cancer battle together, and she's written a book all about it. we also have with us an educational initiative called kids colab that is innovative and fascinating. but, first, did you know that, every three minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer? 70% of patients don't have a match in their own family, so they depend on be the match, which is operated by the national marrow donor program. a marrow or cord-blood transplant can be a lifesaving treatment for more than 70

leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell disease. joining us today from the match is jiro okochi, who is the board chair and a donor, but, more importantly, father of finn okochi, who received his bone-marrow transplant a few years ago. good to have you with us today. >> ken, thank you for having me on. >> i think a lot of people misunderstand what it is to be a donor. first of all, let's talk about the organization, how it got founded, and what it is to be a bone-marrow donor. >> absolutely. be the match is a wonderful organization. it's one of the few not-for-profit organizations that really does save lives. it provides research for science to make sure that the bone-marrow transplants are successful. it has over 22 million bone-marrow registrants, who can then also provide the stem cells or bone marrow. and then, most people don't realize this, but it also offers a lot of patient assistance. so it's a fantastic organization that really does ultimately cure and save lives.

that's the best part about it. of course, i was a fantastic recipient of that organization with my son finn, whose life was saved as an infant 'cause he had a blood disease that was fatal. so wonderful organization, and i can't say enough about it. >> and we're talking not too long ago when, so many people diagnosed with various blood caners, it could've been a death sentence. but because of registries like this -- this one being the enormous one that it is -- it's a whole different story today. >> absolutely. my wife's two uncles and her brother passed away from the same hereditary disease that my son finn had inherited. so, 30 to 40 years ago, there was no registry. you know, the impetus for forming the registry was a father whose daughter had died of leukemia, was part of the navy, and was able to really get the foundation off the ground and start funding for the research to get this going.

so, yeah, again, without be the match and the national marrow donor program, my son wouldn't be alive today. >> you know, a lot of people think that some of the restrictions on donating blood also apply to being a bone-marrow donor, and they don't. i thought so, too. if you take propecia for a bald spot -- [clears throat] finasteride -- you can't donate blood, for instance. you're forbidden. so when we had a bone-marrow drive here a few years ago at wabc -- "good morning america," wabc, and the live show, we all got together, and we had -- about 200 to 300 employees got together, and we all swabbed. it's very simple. take seconds. you fill out a card, and -- boom -- you get a letter in the mail, and you are forever in the registry. and -- boom -- if they find a match, they contact you, and you could save a life. so easy to do. do it. but i thought, "oh, i certainly can't take part 'cause i take finasteride." they said, "nope, doesn't ban you," right? >> no. i mean, there's certain requirements. i think the key things that both

patients and doctors in the registry are looking for are young donors, young potential donors. typically, if you do have a need for a transplant, you won't find that within your family. i think there's a misconception that, "my sibling will be able to donate their marrow." so that's the first thing. so most people rely on unrelated donations like my son received, like i also ended up donating peripheral blood cells. so i think that's the first thing. but there are -- you need healthy people. >> sure. >> and it's all about making sure that the bone marrow takes with the patient, so there's certain things that you have -- you are required in terms of health and condition. but the key really is, it is as easy as you say to register and get your hla typing in the registry, but that registration could be in the system for 10, 20, 30, 40 years. >> right. >> that costs money, and you have to preserve it and do

research off of it. so i think it's getting healthy donors, getting a wide variety of ethnicities. so a lot of the successful matching is based on your heritage, so there's certainly a need for more ethnic typing in the system. my son is half japanese, so it made it a little bit more complicated. but hispanic, african-american -- those type of registrants are direly needed. >> so, maybe the next time you want to do something around the holidays, instead of having just a holiday party, you contact the organization, have them come down. have everybody -- before you initiate the cocktails and the food, have everybody do a swab, fill out a card. boom. you're all set. right? >> absolutely. and we of course did that many times to try and find a match for my son. there are fun ways you can do it. you can organize mini walk/runs -- you know, really fun events to draw in registrants. but i do want to reiterate, you

the foundation 'cause it does take money to actually type these registrants. >> and what we did, too, is we asked anyone who would like to make a donation -- they had suggested donations, so if you want to do a $25 donation. because it costs money to do the typing, so people immediately pulled out their credit cars, and who gave $100, who gave $200. i know a couple of people gave into the thousands, whatever. >> it feels wonderful to give. >> to give, it's a good thing because think of the lives you're saving. think of how horrible a blood cancer or a blood disease -- leukemia, sickle cell, these are horrible diseases, and you could change someone's life, literally make them whole and normal again from a simple swab of the cheek. it is amazing how you could transform a life. >> and i think the perception is still out there that, "i'm afraid to register because, if i'm called up, i'm gonna have to donate marrow from my hip." 70% of the time, it's actually through a peripheral-blood, stem-cell donation. so you go to the hospital, you sit at a sort of dialysis-type machine, they filter your blood for a couple hours, and that's

pretty much it. so it's not the intrusive, you know, surgery that most people think about. 70% of the time, it is very simple. you just have to be committed to stay through that process. >> and you know what? if you had to drill my into my hip to save somebody's life, you can drill into my hip. >> i would do it any time, as well. >> you bet, [chuckles] and you make a friend for life, i'm sure. >> it's a wonderful experience to obviously have your son's life saved, but also to save somebody else's life. >> it is so nice to have you here. so glad to hear the good news for you, and let's hope we get some people who will call up. in fact, let's get -- say your number. and i know we have it on our website, but say the number -- >> well, it's bethematch.org is the simple way to go. >> that's it, bethematch.org. and you could save somebody's life. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you, ken. appreciate it. >> and we are gonna come right back with the author of a book whose title says it all -- "two of a kind: the story of how my little boy and i survived cancer."

[ theme music plays ] >> welcome back to "new jersey viewpoint." i'm ken rosato. this morning, we bring you a book written by a young mother who dealt with the shock of having her son diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2009. two years later, she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer. and believe it or not, both of them finished their treatments together in 2012. please join me in welcoming geri payawal shepard. as i mentioned. she's also the author of "two of a kind: the story of how my little boy and i survived cancer." it's great to have you here today. >> thank you so much. >> so, you just deal with your own child with cancer and the dramatic trauma, the difficulties of that, and then you have to deal with yourself. what is that like? >> it was really quite challenging. to tell you the truth, when i was diagnosed with breast cancer, i actually just felt numb. i had no emotion left to give for myself because i felt like

we had all the emotion to give to my son, so, in the beginning, i really didn't process it. it was when the doctors started telling me that i had to do chemo that it really hit me that it was unimaginable that it was happening to us at the same time, and my husband and i even said that, you know, "there's no way that lightning could possibly strike twice." but it happened, and we just had to deal with it as it happened. >> did you find yourself not even worrying about yourself because you were giving so much to your son? >> in a lot of ways, yes, because he was my focus. and in other ways, i knew that i had to get myself well because i had to be there for my son. for any mother who's ever been diagnosed with any kind of cancer, your first thought is your children, and it was even more so for me because my son was also battling cancer. >> all right, take me back to when your son -- 'cause he was the first one who diagnosed, right? so take me back to what was it that -- was he just not feeling well one day, you took him into the doctor, you got the diagnosis? what happened? >> well, it began with him getting these fevers every

couple of weeks with no other symptoms -- no cough, no cold, no runny nose. we would take him to the pediatrician, and she would tell us, "well, it's perfectly normal for him to catch a virus and to get it over it," so we accepted that. and the fevers continued, and soon he started to get bruises in parts of his body that didn't make any sense. he was starting to appear pale, and he was tired all the time. and then we finally demanded a blood test and subsequently got a bone-marrow biopsy that diagnosed him with leukemia. >> it's a good thing you forced. >> yeah. >> 'cause it could've gotten worse if you didn't intervene, have an intervention at that point. and then what was the treatment course that you had at that point for him? >> the treatment course for maddox's leukemia was 3 years. so, basically, he got the intensive phase of his chemo at the hospital, and he was discharged after maybe about a month and a half to continue at home, so i had the responsibility of giving him chemo at home for over three years. >> so, during the process of

treating him, having his chemo treatments at home -- and of course chemo treatments are horrible because you could lose your hair, you get nauseous, violently nauseous, you don't want to eat, you get the tinny taste for the food, et cetera, et cetera. that's when you discover what? >> that i had breast cancer. >> so you wake up one day, and you decide you have to get to the doctor because you find something. >> yeah, well, i had been following this story of a celebrity, and she was doing ivf, and it was breast cancer awareness month, and the doctor wouldn't let her continue until she got a mammogram. and i was watching her story, and i thought -- my husband and i at the time were also trying to have a baby -- "maybe i should do a self-breast-exam." and it was that breast exam that i found a lump in my left breast and discovered that i had breast cancer. and i just think it's amazing that you just never know whose story is gonna affect you or who's listening. perhaps someone watching today will do that breast exam or do that self-- or get that mammogram because they heard our story. >> mm. i mean, so many people we know here -- we have stacey sager

who works for us here at channel 7, and of course amy robach on "good morning america," robin roberts on "good morning america." we've heard of so many women who, because of these ladies, they were encouraged to get a mammogram and have found out that they had breast cancer. so, yeah, your story today hopefully will encourage people to at least give the self-exam and hopefully, if they find anything suspicious, immediately go to their doctor and get checked. >> absolutely. >> and then your own treatment was what? >> my own treatment was chemo. it was four cycles, three weeks apart. and for anyone who's ever experienced chemo, you know that it can easily break your spirit. >> mm. >> there were moments when i didn't think i could handle it because it weakens your body to the point where you feel like it's failing you. and it was my son -- i would only look at my son to put things in the proper perspective, because he was doing chemo, and he was getting through it, and he was being so brave. and it was his courage that gave

>> so, at this time, you're trying to deal with your own illness, your own chemo, your own treatment, and still taking care of your son and his chemo and trying to live a "normal life." >> yeah. >> that was amazing. so, is that what inspired you then to put this all in writing? >> i think what inspired me the most was to hopefully provide some support and encouragement to other families dealing with childhood cancer or other women battling breast cancer or any type of cancer. you know, our family knows what kind of emotional toll it takes to take care of a child in treatment because we lived it. and i know the pain and suffering that chemo causes because i went through it. and it's there to tell people that they're not alone, that they can get through it, that they can be strong. >> what do you most appreciate today now that you're both cancer-free, you're both off chemo, and you're both living a >> gosh. you're right -- in a lot of ways, we had to relearn to be normal after we finished our treatments, and i think we just appreciate the littl-- it sounds clich\d, but we just have such a greater appreciation of the little things, of the simple

pleasures in life, being able to go on vacation and knowing that really the most important things are our family and our good health. >> you were saying, before we went on the segment, being able to enjoy a good meal and taste the food is such a special treat. >> it really is. i mean, it seems minor to think about, but, when i was on chemo, everything was horribly tasting, and you just didn't want to eat. and to have the simple pleasure of eating a good meal, it's really something -- it was a gift. it was something to appreciate. and you don't think about it, but it's something that we are more aware of because of everything we've been through, just little things like that. >> how old is maddox now? >> he is nine years old. >> does he ever talk to you about what he went through? >> you know, he was so young when all this happened. he's aware that he had cancer, but i don't think he really grasped exactly what that meant. to him, he's more proud that he's a survivor. because we would go to these charity events, and he would lead the parade because he's a survivor, so, to him, it's something that he's proud of that he's made it through, even though he doesn't have a full

concept of exactly everything he went through. >> and he should be very proud of his mom, too. >> thank you. >> it's good to have you on, geri. and, again, the name of the book is "two of a kind: how my little boy and i survived cancer." may you both be, as we say in italian, cent'anni, 100 years in good health the entire time. geri, good to have on today. >> thank you so much. >> for information on all the organizations featured on "viewpoint" and if you've missed part of the show and you'd like to see it at your leisure, do visit us at abc7ny/viewpoint. we'll be right back with kids colab, a unique educational initiative.

>> welcome back to "new jersey viewpoint." i'm ken rosato. well, you may have not have heard of them before, but pearson claims to be the world's leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in more than 80 countries. they want to solve education challenges around the world through research and innovation. today we bring you kids colab, which is a part of pearson's research and innovation network.

the director of academic and product research at pearson, olivia collucci, a seventh grader in the kids colab team from pequannock valley middle school in pompton plains, and her mother, christina collucci. good to have you all with us today. >> good to be with you. >> well, first of all, let me ask you more about what the colab is. tell me about this. >> sure. so, kids colab is a combined group of adults - pearson product team members and researchers -- along with children, who work together to co-design. it is based off of 20 years of research out of the university of maryland, and they have been working in co-designing with children for years, and we've taken their philosophies and brought them to pearson. and some of their philosophies are really about to break down that power structure between children and adults, hence the casual attire today. it's done with intent so that we're thought of as equal partners. so when we're co-creating products and solutions for pearson, we can think of each other as equal partners bringing all of our ideas together.

>> so, are you talking about a whole different approach to education, or are you talking about post-education? what are we talking about? >> we're talking about the designing of k-12 products and solutions. so we're working with elizabeth and eight other children from all around new jersey to co-create technology products that'll end up in the classrooms of some of olivia's peers. >> so whether it be, instead of books, a type of ipad that the kids might learn with or something like that? is that what we're talking about? >> sure. one of the things we've been working on is successmaker, which is a pearson's program. it's a k-8 reading-math-adaptivity program, and the kids colab has been working on creating new characters, so they've been working on features and backstories and names for these characters. and we've just finalized them, and they're gonna be coming out shortly. >> okay. well, let me ask you, olivia, when you first encountered the kids colab, what was it like? was it something that you were nervous about, or was it something that you embraced fully and have learned to like? >> well, when i joined

gonna be a great opportunity for me to learn and socialize, and it was. you know, when you enter the building, it's very cozy in there, you really like it, and there are so many missions. the kids and the adults work differently from how they would have at school. >> in what way? versus, say, a traditional classroom setting and a traditional approach, what's different? >> well, at school, the teachers -- it's kind of more of a passive kind of learning than actual hands-on learning. we don't do a lot of s.t.e.m. or not as much, but -- >> s.t.e.m. being -- i'm sorry to interrupt -- science, >> yes. >> that's s.t.e.m. for those who don't know the acronym. please continue. >> in kids colab, we do a lot of hands-on stuff, and it's not just hands-on by yourself. you're also working with other peers. whether they're adults or kids, they're still your peers, and you work very well with them. >> now, if i may -- before i go to mom, if i may, this sounds a little like a montessori-esque approach.

is it very different from that, or is it sort of similar to that approach? 'cause that's sort of the way montessori schools have approached in the past, where the peers work with one another a lot and have that kind of camaraderie-type approach to education. is it similar in that way? >> well, i'm happy to hear that olivia feels very comfortable and has that camaraderie, because what we're doing is we're working as adults and children, together in small groups, to create, to brainstorm new products and solutions for pearson. so we're working together, and it follows a very simple agenda. every session we have is the same. it's a 90-minute session. it starts with snack time for all of us to decompress after the workday, to talk about the kids' days. and then we go into circle time, where everybody says their name, their age, and answers some question that's gonna be relating to what we're doing. and then we go into our design task, which is where the adults and kids work in small groups together on whatever problem we're trying to have the children help us solve. and then, finally, we're doing presentations of those

small-group activities, and then we're going to do big ideas, and this all based out of the university of maryland. and the big ideas is try to come up with those similar themes that we're hearing from those presentations. >> so, instead of the traditional concept of, "i'm gonna bombard you with information you know nothing about. i'm gonna force-feed you six chapters that you must learn by tomorrow. then i'm gonna test you and make you stressed-out about it." am i -- you get where i'm going with this, the traditional school system? "i'm gonna stress you out about a test that you'll have to take tomorrow. you're gonna freak out about the test. you'll probably fail the test even though you probably know the stuff, but because you don't test well. then you're gonna fail. then you're gonna be all stressed-out about the rest of the school year." this is an entirely different approach to education where you come together, it's a group setting, you work together as a group, sort of like you would in real life later on, where you come together as a team, and you come up with ideas together, and you're encouraged to feed off of each other's ideas to come together to solve a problem. is this where we're going? >> yes, i mean, really, there's three benefits to pearson's

kids colab. the first benefit is for pearson because i don't know what it's like to be a kid in 2015. do you? there's no idea. so what we have to figure out is what are those realities. so by having ongoing engagement with kids, we're able to get those insights. there's a benefit for olivia and other kids colab members because they're getting a look behind the curtain of what it's like, the design and development process of products and solutions. we're also benefiting the end users of these products, which are kids in school, because they're gonna be able to use products that their peers worked on. >> i have to ask mom here to get in. christina, what is it like having olivia come home now versus before? does she come home motivated, excited? is she happy about getting to this colab? >> you know, she loves colab, and we travel quite a distance to do it every week. we fight some traffic. but she had had the opportunity to participate in a kids colab camp over the summer, and she loved it, so we knew it was gonna be a good fit for her.

she's not a sports kid. she doesn't do dance. you know, it's hard to find activities for her that are appealing. and the way the kids colab meetings are structured, they encourage creativity. they encourage thinking outside of the box. these are right up her alley. so for kids like olivia, this is a really great opportunity. she gets to hone her presentation skills, and, every meeting, they get to talk about what they did afterwards. and to be able to effectively communicate an idea to others is powerful, it's a powerful thing, and it's something that will serve her well as she goes through middle school and high school and hopefully into college and even as an adult. but i think what i like best for her -- and i think what she groups. she's working in a group of peers, including the adult peers, and they're problem-solving, they're brainstorming, they're using their creative skills, and it's not easy to work in groups. you have to work with other people your whole life, and to

and to know when to take the lead, when to sit back, when to listen, these are great things for her, and i think just developing that is such a benefit for her to have that. >> the whole concept of colab, collaboration, working together, knowing when to, as you said, take the lead and when to step back, give and take, be patient, listen to other people -- those are really essential skills, and to learn that now as opposed to being a little too headstrong later and then learning the hard way, it's a very important skill. sounds like you guys are right on track. good deal. it is nice to have you all here. chil-- kids colab, i should say. robin, olivia, christina, great to have you. all the best to you, too. i want to hear about once you've graduated college, when you're a c.e.o., which i'm sure you'll do by the time you're 14. nice to have you here, again. i'm ken rosato. we want to thank you again for joining us. enjoy the rest of your weekend.

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