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DOWAGIAC – Dozens of friends, family and even strangers turned out last Saturday for a bone marrow registry event to benefit four year-old Kataleya Steward of Niles.

Little Kataleya suffers from a rare kind of anemia and needs a bone marrow transplant to fight off leukemia.

      The event was sponsored by the DKMS organization which is the largest bone marrow registry organization of its kind in the world. Kataleya’s grandmother, Tammy Russell, contacted DKMS earlier this year and hosted the registry event at the Dowagiac Eagles Lodge.

Russell searched online for what she could find to help her granddaughter and discovered the DKMS organization.

“I gave them the information online and they called me the next day to set up the drive,” she said.

Russell plans to continue her efforts with a virtual bone marrow drive as well as one at the Cass County Fair this summer.

      Hershberger and Kataleya’s mother, Tiffany Hershberger, describe Kataleya as an energetic little girl who’s a little smaller than others her age. She’s bright, loving and imaginative and continues to inspire those around her. She currently attends the Berrien County hearing impaired program at Sylvester Elementary in Berrien Springs.

Kataleya was born with Fanconi anemia and a condition called myelodysplastic syndrome which can lead to bone marrow failure and cancer.

Hershberger said they knew something was wrong when she was pregnant with the baby ended up being born with one ear not fully formed, a thumb not attached right and some kidney problems. While the little girl had been doing well, the most recent tests found abnormalities with the doctors telling them she needs a bone marrow transplant.

“They told us we should look for a bone marrow donor,” Hershberger said. “She has no siblings and her father and I are just 50 percent matches. Unless it’s a perfect match, it’s more likely her body will reject a bone marrow transplant.”

They say their goal is to find a close enough match so the little girl’s body won’t reject the bone marrow transplant. If and when they find a match, they expect the procedure will be done at the C.S. Mott’s Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor this summer. Little Kataleya will have to stay in the hospital for 100 days to make sure the transplant takes.

DKMS representative Ashley Brown was on hand for the drive and said that the organization was founded in 1991 in Germany and now has chapters throughout the world with over 12 million people registered and over 110,000 matches and stem cell donations made.

      Brown said recruitment drives occur at least weekly at locations around the United States and people can also visit the www.dkms.org website where a special page has been created to sign up bone marrow donors for Kataleya. To register and donate, people have to be between age 18 and 55.

Her organization covers the costs associated with the bone marrow procedure for donors, including things like transportation and child care. She said people’s biggest misconception is that they think it’s a spinal tap when it’s actually a one to two hour outpatient procedure taking the bone marrow out of the pelvic bone.

      She likened finding a bone marrow match to finding a needle in a haystack but said it’s always worth it to be tested. While four out of 10 matches are from family donors, six out of 10 are from unrelated people.

“It’s very rare to find someone to match a specific patient but you’re increasing the chances for other patients when you register,” she said.

The registry procedure itself included swabbing the inside of both cheeks for 60 seconds on each side as well as another 60 seconds around the teeth and gums.

“We always say that it could be the best three minutes of someone else’s life,” Brown said.