New Jersey Drive for Huntar this Saturday in East Orange

In Search of a Perfect Match for Huntar

Huntar is a young energetic and creative 10 year old from New Jersey.  She likes yoga, technology, loves to read, and excels at arts and crafts. A special treat for Huntar is a trip to Cold Stone Ice Cream.

In October 2013 she was diagnosed with a platelet deficiency known as ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura) and later diagnosed with the blood disorder called aplastic anemia. This has all led to an official diagnosis of MDS (myelodysplastic syndromes). Simply put her bone marrow is not making enough healthy blood cells causing shortness of breath, periods of weakness, and she is susceptible to easy bruising or bleeding. In Huntars case MDS (also known as pre-leukemia) has a high likelihood of developing into Acute Myeloid Leukemia which is aggressive and difficult to treat

Doctors have determined that Huntar needs a bone marrow/stem cell transplant. New healthy transplanted bone marrow from a donor can save Huntar from this life threatening situation. Unfortunately Huntar does not have a matching donor in her family. Her best chances for a cure are to find a perfectly matching unrelated donor.

In the meantime she gets frequent blood transfusions which limit her activity preventing her from doing many of the things she loves. Huntar's parents Tony and Karen are asking the community to step up and get swabbed in hopes that a perfectly matching donor will join the registry.