Donor Drive for Young Marlboro Boy with Aplastic Anemia

Keith Goff, a Robertsville Firefighter in Marlboro Township, is asking for help from the community after his son was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.

Sean, 2 year-old of Marlboro Township, was recently diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia and needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life.

His parents have 6 other children and can use all the help that we can give them. Please find it in your heart to help Sean and his family get through this hard time. Thank You.

Please visit http://www.gofundme.com/1jyjas to help, if you cannot make the bone marrow drive.

What it means to be a donor

Becoming a registered bone marrow or stem cell transplant donor is easy, and the donation process is not as painful as many believe, according to National Marrow Donor Program.

"You swab your cheek. If you are lucky enough to be someone's life saving donor the next step is as simple as giving blood,” said Krista Coppola, who saved donated stem cells to save her sister, Meghan Rizzo’s life, after a leukemia diagnosis. “Their hope and life is in the hands of those of you who are generous enough to save them."

The most common way to donate is through a procedure called Peripheral Blood Cell Donation, which means the donor does not undergo surgery but instead receives injections over just a few days to increase healthy cell production.

The donation is performed much like a transfusion, a simple procedure of sitting down and donating blood.

While PBCD is most common today, many people are familiar with marrow donation, where marrow is extracted from the hip bone of a donor, a procedure that has vastly improved over the years.

It is important to note that if called as a match, donors will not know the patient they are donating stem cells or marrow to until one year has passed. At that time, both parties may agree to meet.