Washingtonians, including former Sen. Tom Daschle and the folks at the State Department, were among those to swab their cheeks to help a very sick 4-year-old boy.
Washington-based Bloomberg correspondent Indira Lakshmanan’s son Devan recently suffered a relapse of leukemia and he is expected to need a bone marrow transplant. Because matches are so rare, the family created MatchDevan.com and friends volunteered to swab people’s cheeks, a test that indicates a match.
Daschle was caught leaving brunch with his wife and a friend when ABC 7’s Rebecca Cooper ambushed the former Senate majority leader. She and a group of moms were manning a “Swab a Cheek, Save a Life” station in the Palisades. Daschle swabbed and then patiently filled out the pile of paperwork documenting his medical history, Cooper told Yeas & Nays.
In addition, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s longtime adviser Philippe Reines and others at the State Department all made sure to swab before Clinton’s trip to Asia.
A close match was found last week, but the drive is continuing in the boy’s honor and because a perfect match would be ideal.
