COLLEEN WHITE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER | Mona Safar swabs her cheek at the bone marrow donor event last Friday at Nellie K. Parker School.Austin, a first grade student at Nellie K. Parker School, survived his bout with Leukemia after receiving a bone marrow transplant, and he’s now on a crusade to help a 10-year-old New York boy who has been diagnosed with hypereosinophilic syndrome, a rare, progressively fatal blood disease. A form of Leukemia, the disease creates an excess of white blood cells to attack the body’s internal organs.

The boy, LJ Jones, has been through several rounds of chemotherapy with hopes of putting the cancer into remission, but a bone marrow transplant is needed to save his life.

Austin James, 10, is a leukemia survivor who helped organize last week’s bone marrow donor event.After learning of LJ’s story during a television report, Austin was moved and approached the Parker School student council and Principal Lillian Whitaker. Austin inquired about ways the school could sponsor a donor day to raise awareness and perhaps find a compatible bone marrow donor for LJ.

As a result of Austin and the school’s efforts, the Parker community held its donor drive last Friday. Members of the school community ages 18 to 60 years and in good health simply filled out a form and took a swab sample from the inside of their mouths.

The event was supported by Be the Match, National Donor Marrow Registry and The Icla da Silva Foundation, a recruitment center for the Be The Match Registry.

— Darius Amos