ATLANTA — An Atlanta family is hoping to raise awareness of the urgent need for blood marrow donors following the search for a perfect match for their two-year-old son.
Doctors diagnosed Sterling Pace with mixed-phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) in September. His case is especially rare, and after three months of chemotherapy, medications and extensive hospital stays, Sterling’s parents tell 11Alive the little boy’s best chance is for a bone marrow transplant. The search, they say, was eye-opening.
“Obviously, the greater the match, the greater the chance of success,” his dad Sterling Pace said. “We had no idea how many people were in need of a transplant and just how easy it is to be a donor.”
As the search for a match intensified, the Sterling family turned to social media in hopes of spreading awareness about the donor process and the first step towards joining the Be the Match registry: a simple swab kit.
“We've been humbled by family and friends who have raced to register in time for Sterling,” Pace shared.
It’s not just family and friends; Sterling’s mom, Kiley, said strangers have seen the social posts and reached out after being inspired to register.
“I've had people reach out to me that I don't even know that, you know, are in Colorado or Chicago that have been sending me pictures of their swab kits,” Kiley Pace said. It’s just been, it's been crazy. The amount of people that are willing to help us.”
Sporting goods companies have even started their own social media campaign to support the cause, launching the “Swing and Swab” challenge online.
While the hope was for a perfect adult donor for Sterling, his medical team is now prepared to move forward with a partial cord blood donation. Cord blood, which is left in the umbilical cord and placenta and contains blood-forming cells, is usually thrown away after the birth of a baby but can be instead stored and used later by a patient who needs it. The option is not available in all hospitals but when possible, is free and offered to new moms. Yet the numbers of donations, Pace shared, indicate many people are unaware of the lifesaving benefit.
“All you have to do is tell your labor and delivery doctor,” Pace said, “And you know, you can go into a registry. We only had 3,000 cord blood donations in 2022 with 3.6 million births.”
Right now, Sterling is home recovering as his body regains strength following chemotherapy. If his next bone marrow test shows he’s cancer-free from treatment, his parents hope he’ll be able to move forward with the transplant.
“At this point, we're going to have to go with the donors that exist,” Pace shared. “But we're not going to slow down on building awareness because there's a ton of other children out there.” Learn more about the Be the Match Registry here.