A family in Waxahachie is looking to the public in order to discover a cure for their son and others that have the sickle cell disease.
15-year-old Robert Webster has been hospitalized more than he has participated in his high school marching band, where he plays the trumpet.
“I would cry a lot of nights when he was asleep because it just hurts my heart,” his mother Jacklyn stated.
For the past year, Robert’s pain has increased as he deals with sickle cell, a genetically inherited disease that has led to him spending many nights at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. There, has started hydroxyurea therapy.
However, there is another option. A bone marrow may be able to offer a cure. On the other hand, the chances of locating a match is based upon a patient’s ethnicity.
The National Marrow Donor Program has noted that Black patients have a decreased chance of finding a donor match.
As Black patients find matching donors 29% of the time, white patients locate them 79% of the time. To add, there just simply isn’t enough diversity in the “pool of donors.”
“It’s not just my son; there’s lots of other people out there who need a donor, as well, and there’s nobody on the registry to match,” Jacklyn said.
His relatives and care support now wish that discussing this matter leads someone to register and help find a cure for Robert or other children.
To be placed on the donor registry, visit bethematch.org.
