North Andover toddler to begin the fight of his life.

We all need a little help every once in the while – and I am asking for your help. My 3-year-old grandson and superhero, Joey, has a very rare medical condition which is preventing his bone marrow from producing healthy blood and platelets. Over the past couple of months, he has been regularly visiting Children’s Hospital and now Dana Farber for blood and platelet transfusions. If you were to look at him, you’d have no idea that anything was wrong. He has an incredible personality and the good looks of his grandfather.

In order to get better, in a couple of weeks, he will begin the fight for his life and will receive chemotherapy in order to completely destroy his immune system in order to make room for a new one. He will get very sick, lose his hair as well as his superpowers. Then he will receive a bone marrow transplant that will slowly bring his immune system back to that of a normal 3-year-old. Fortunately, he found his first superhero that will help him in his fight back to health. The first superhero is his brother Jake who luckily is a 100 percent bone marrow match. Jake never hesitated when he knew he could save his brother's life, even though he would have to endure a fair amount of pain in order to extract the bone marrow that will be given to his little brother. Joey will be in the hospital for about six weeks and then will return home but unfortunately because of his lack of an immune system he will not be able to have visitors for another 9 months – after which his immune system should be back along with his superpowers.

Since the word has spread, superheroes (his family and friends) have rallied to help the family in many ways. The first thing everyone asks is how can they help.

1. Head to the GoFundMe page that was set for Joey. The family has set a modest goal and any money over that goal will be donated back to the Jimmy Fund which will help other children with serious medical conditions. https://www.gofundme.com/joeys-fight-club

1. Spread the word by reposting this page to Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter (#joeysfightclub) or any other social media sites that will help spread the word along with a note asking others to share or repost.
   
   
2. Donate blood/platelets which will help Joey and other children who need a little help
   
   
3. Go to https://www.bethematch.comto join the registry and become a potential blood marrow donor yourself and possibly help save someone’s life.
   
   
4. Send thoughts and prayers to Joey and his family

For those who want to follow Joey's progress, the following Facebook site has been set up:
https://www.facebook.com/JoeysFightClub/