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4-YEAR-OLD NEEDS BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT
Brian Taff
6abc.com
April 1 2010
BALA CYNWYD, Pa. - April 1, 2010 (WPVI) -- Easter Sunday is the
most important day on the Christian calendar and it may prove to be
a life-saving one for a little Montgomery County girl with a rare
blood disease.
Charlotte Conybear is a beautiful 4-year-old girl who, in some ways,
is like so many others. She loves to paint, and to draw and to eat
things as sweet as she is.
But one day, Charlotte's parents noticed something that just didn't
seem right.
"We first noticed, about a year and a half ago, that Charlotte had a
lot of bruises, especially on her legs," Ellen Conybear, Charlotte's
mother, said.
At first, doctors thought it was something called ITP, a common
disorder that often goes away with age. But Charlotte's didn't; it
got worse and then came the diagnosis of aplastic anemia, a difficult
to cure blood disorder that can be fatal.
But more than simply the diagnosis, the Conybears were surprised by
the complication of the cure.
Charlotte likely needs a bone marrow transplant, but because of the
rare genetics of her Armenian heritage, not a single person of the
millions on a national list of donors matched. Not one.
But this Sunday, Easter Sunday, when so many Christians celebrate
the resurrection of their Savior, the Conybears will be looking for
a savior and through an extraordinary turn of events, they just may
find one.
"This is now, we have an opportunity to extend a hand, to give
a life for someone," Reverend Oshagan Gulgulian of St. Sahag and
St. Mesrob said.
Hearing her story, through word of mouth, nearly a dozen Armenian
churches from California to ones in our area, are setting out to help
asking their parishioners to take a simple mouth swab this Sunday to
see if just may be a match.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section= news/local&id=7363209
Brian Taff
6abc.com
April 1 2010
BALA CYNWYD, Pa. - April 1, 2010 (WPVI) -- Easter Sunday is the
most important day on the Christian calendar and it may prove to be
a life-saving one for a little Montgomery County girl with a rare
blood disease.
Charlotte Conybear is a beautiful 4-year-old girl who, in some ways,
is like so many others. She loves to paint, and to draw and to eat
things as sweet as she is.
But one day, Charlotte's parents noticed something that just didn't
seem right.
"We first noticed, about a year and a half ago, that Charlotte had a
lot of bruises, especially on her legs," Ellen Conybear, Charlotte's
mother, said.
At first, doctors thought it was something called ITP, a common
disorder that often goes away with age. But Charlotte's didn't; it
got worse and then came the diagnosis of aplastic anemia, a difficult
to cure blood disorder that can be fatal.
But more than simply the diagnosis, the Conybears were surprised by
the complication of the cure.
Charlotte likely needs a bone marrow transplant, but because of the
rare genetics of her Armenian heritage, not a single person of the
millions on a national list of donors matched. Not one.
But this Sunday, Easter Sunday, when so many Christians celebrate
the resurrection of their Savior, the Conybears will be looking for
a savior and through an extraordinary turn of events, they just may
find one.
"This is now, we have an opportunity to extend a hand, to give
a life for someone," Reverend Oshagan Gulgulian of St. Sahag and
St. Mesrob said.
Hearing her story, through word of mouth, nearly a dozen Armenian
churches from California to ones in our area, are setting out to help
asking their parishioners to take a simple mouth swab this Sunday to
see if just may be a match.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section= news/local&id=7363209