Siblings’ marrow transplant inspires toy drive for CHOC patients
When Riley Meunier was 11 months old, his then-2-year-old sister saved his life.
In 2007, Sydney Meunier became a bone marrow donor to cure her younger brother after Children’s Hospital of Orange County diagnosed him with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, an immunodeficiency disease.
Sydney, now 11, and Riley, a fourth-grader at Lincoln Elementary School in Corona del Mar who celebrated his 10th birthday Tuesday, are working with students at Costa Mesa’s Victoria Elementary School to collect as many toys as they can for patients at CHOC who are receiving bone marrow transplants.
The two arrived at Victoria on Wednesday to share their story during the school’s daily flag deck and to help sort the coloring books, board games and dolls that have been donated for the drive since Feb. 1.
“I don’t remember that much from [the transplant] back then, but I remember spending a lot of time in the hospital for Riley,” said Sydney, a sixth-grader at Lincoln. “Now we’re here to gather toys for kids who are going through the same thing Riley did.”
The pair’s mother, Amy Meunier, a Victoria teacher, organized the toy drive along with Victoria’s 13-member student council. The team had collected more than 200 items as of Wednesday morning.
“After being at CHOC for my child and meeting so many other heroic children there, I promised myself to do something nice for CHOC every year,” Meunier said.
The toy drive ends Friday. The donations will be given to children at CHOC’s oncology intensive care unit next week.
Doctors at the children’s hospital in Orange performed the bone marrow transplant with Sydney and Riley nine years ago. At the time, according to Meunier, doctors said a bone marrow donation would be her son’s only chance to live past age 6.
When Riley was born in February 2006, the 9-pound-4-ounce baby looked perfectly healthy, Meunier said. But at 3 months old, he began to show red dots on his skin and redness in his face.
“We had seen probably a dozen doctors to try and find out what was going on,” Meunier said. “We finally contacted CHOC and, by then, Riley was 6 months old. CHOC came up with the final diagnosis and we found he was born with a blood disease that was not detected at first.”
Meunier, her husband and Sydney underwent the process to see if they could be a marrow donor for Riley. After their genetic makeup was reviewed, Sydney was determined to be the perfect match for a transplant.
In late January 2007, Sydney arrived at CHOC to have bone marrow extracted from her hip in one room while Riley was being prepared for the transplant in another room.
The Meunier family spent 67 days at CHOC, including Riley’s three weeks of chemotherapy before receiving the bone marrow, followed by the transplant and recovery time. Riley celebrated his first birthday at the hospital.
Now he enjoys snowboarding and playing football for a local youth team. He said his favorite subject at Lincoln is math and that he hopes to be a chief financial officer for a company when he grows up.
“Seeing him go from this sick, fragile child who experienced so much pain and seeing his accomplishments now is just a miracle,” Meunier said. “I prayed every day back then because I knew all I could do was hope.”
Before Meunier and Victoria’s student council began collecting toys this month, they put up posters and fliers around the school to promote the drive.
The group is arranging the toy cars, Lego games and other donated items into neat piles in Meunier’s classroom. Students said the number is still growing.
“These are going to kids who are the bravest of all of us,” said Victoria fifth-grader Colin Sanchez. “Every day they’re probably thinking, ‘Am I going to survive?’ But we know these toys could help keep their mind off that.”
