When 14-year old Ramon Hilliard was diagnosed with a fast-moving leukemia in November, it was the shock of his mother’s life.
The Northwestern High School junior varsity football player was in remission for barely a month before the lymphoblastic leukemia returned with a vengeance. The Hyattsville teen needs abone marrow transplant to survive.
Now Denae Hilliard is working on an Easter miracle for her son.
“I won’t stop,” she said as she sat in the atrium of Children’s National Medical Center. “Day and night, I will be pleading, ‘Please join the registry.’ ”
On Easter morning, Hilliard was appealing to the parishioners at Northwest’s Mount Sinai Baptist Church to join the National Marrow Donor Program Registry. It was the third drive she has been involved in this year. She and representatives from the program were signing up potential marrow donators on the one block away at the Fourth Street Seventh Day Adventist Church.
She was forced to leave the drive early. Her son’s red blood cell count had dropped to zero and he was having trouble seeing out of his left eye, both side effects from the intensive chemotherapy.
She lost her job recently because she took so much time off to care for her son, but it is Ramon who keeps her strong.
“To see one of your children still smiling after all they have been through …” she said, shaking her head.
Her 17-year-old daughter, Sade, stayed behind at the drive because “we need as many people as we can [to sign up], not just for Ramon, but for all the children.”
The best possible match for Ramon most likely would come from another African-American, said Juliette Williams, a registry recruiter.
Of the 5 million people currently on the registry, more than half are white and only about 450,000 are black, she said.
“There is a great need for black participation in the registry,” Tijuana Griffin said after she got the simple finger-prick test. “I want to be a part of the solution.”
National Marrow Donor Program
» Potential donors may be asked to pay for initial tests
» Results of initial tests are added to the registry in about 48 hours
» Call 1-800-MARROW-2 or go online to www.marrow.org
