Ailani Myers knows a lot about the medical field for only being 4 years old.
She was diagnosed with leukemia more than a year ago and has been undergoing treatment ever since. Now, her family has been told she needs a blood cell transplant or else the consequences could be fatal.
“They are going to take the blood out of me, and then they are going to put it in a machine and make it into medicine and then put it back in my body,” Ailani said.
In 2019, Ailani’s family shared her story in hopes that she’d be able to find a perfect match so she could get a bone marrow transplant.
She faced a number of difficulties because she is biracial – whites have the highest chance of finding a match, while other ethnicities often have a much lower chance – and she is an only child.
“She takes all this better than we do,” Kurt Myers, her father, told Citizen Times in 2019. “She’s very strong, incredible brave. It’s a lot to ask a 3-year-old to spend at least 40 hours a week in a hospital, but she still maintains her happiness.”
Luckily her father was able to donate, but according to a close family friend, he was not a perfect match.
“They are, like, really great parents. The type of parents that, you know, through all of this, try to make sure she is still learning and they’re trying to stay strong for her,” Tamika Cobb said.
That’s why the family is sharing their daughter’s story again, hoping that someone will be a better match for Ailani.
Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital have said the 4-year-old has three months left, at most, unless she’s able to receive a transplant.
In order to see if you’re a match, register with Be The Match.
“If you can’t register, pray. And if you can’t register, give the message to your church, give the message to the people you work with, please take the time to register to help Ailani,” Cobb said.
Will you register and spread the word?
“Please make this cancer go away,” the 4-year-old said.
Share this with your friends and family because even if you aren’t a match with Ailani, you may match with someone else and you may be able to save someone else’s life.
