This Thanksgiving is Extra Special for Michigan Family

Officials with the Be the Match national bone marrow registry program say the power to save lives rests with ordinary people.

No one knows that better than Brad and Nicole Moore of Port Huron, whose 2-year-old son Bradley’s life was saved by a stranger hundreds of miles away in Missouri two years ago this Christmas.

Bradley was born happy and healthy in the fall of 2012, but was soon diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, or JMML, that affects only about 2 percent of leukemia patients annually, The (Port Huron) Times-Herald reports.

They had little time to find a donor. The longer the cancer remained in his little body without treatment, the less the baby’s chances of survival. They reached out to the National Bone Marrow Foundation and made an urgent plea.

Braden Srock, now of St. Joseph, MO, had put his name on the registry in 2007 so he could get extra credit in an Iowa State University physics class, he told St. Joseph (MO) News Press in an interview after he got the call in 2012 that he was a match for a tot who was fighting for his life.

“I never had been contacted until November (2012,” Srock said. “I kind of forgot about it.”

A new father, he was moved when he heard a child’s life was at stake. He told WJBK-TV that he didn’t hesitate, and hoped that if his daughter were in the same circumstances, someone might step forward.

He donated bone marrow and stem cells not once, but twice.

“In his case, the marrow donation he provided last year worked, but the cancer came back,” Julee Darner, donor services coordinator for the University of Iowa Marrow Donor Program, which coordinated Srock’s donation, told the St. Joseph newspaper.

“The hope for stem cell donation this time is that there are more stem cells to fight cancer cells in this type of donation, so ideally the extra stem cells will destroy any remaining cancer cells,” Darner said.

Bradley’s was one of those ideal cases. Two years after his first transplant, Bradley is happy, healthy and cancer-free.

His parents knew they had to meet Srock, who they knew only as an anonymous donor until recently. This fall, they flew to Missouri and met their toddler’s humanitarian donor and his family.

“We did feel like we had known the family forever,” Nicole Moore told the Port Huron newspaper. “Bradley gave Braden a big hug, and Braden just took to him. Bradley kept saying “Braden, Braden!”

Srock said the meeting provided some closure for him and reaffirmed the importance of ordinary people stepping forward.

“It was rewarding finally getting to meet (Bradley),” Srock said. “He is a high-energy, happy kid. I would like to stress that more people should sign up for the registry because you can save someone’s life.”

If you’re looking for a different way to give this holiday season, sign up for the Be the Match registry or organize a bone marrow drive:

• Sign up to become a donor.
• Organize a bone marrow drive.

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Screenshot of Braden Srock and Bradley Moore via WJBK-TV

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