BURBANK : Marrow Donor Sought for Boy

On Thursday, a day after his 11th birthday, Greg Smith lay listlessly on a beanbag chair watching television, coping with the waves of nausea and fever that go hand-in-hand with his chemotherapy treatments.

“There are more good days than there are bad,” said Ron Smith, father of the Burbank boy who suffers from leukemia. “Next week he’ll be up and bouncing around.”

Greg, a fan of “Star Trek,” hockey and baseball, has been diagnosed with the disease for more than two years. He had been in remission, a healthy state, until January when a sudden fever spiked to dangerously high levels and he nearly died.

Greg survived the episode, but the relapse told his family and doctors that getting a bone marrow transplant was unavoidable. But no one in his family or among the 890,000 people listed in donor banks nationwide is a suitable match.

St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church and other volunteers in the Burbank Catholic community are trying to help the American Red Cross and the National Marrow Donor Program find a donor by holding a a local blood testing drive at the church on Oct. 9.

“We all knew the name Greg Smith,” said Peg Setti, who works at St. Francis Xavier Church. The boy’s name has been mentioned in prayers for the sick at Sunday Mass for 2 1/2 years. In June, the church launched a $6,750 fund-raising drive to pay for blood tests of at least 300 potential donors.

Finding a match in such a small group seems like a long shot, after a nationwide listing has so far failed, but the family says it has no choice but to try.

“We can’t just sit by,” Smith’s father said. “We have to do something.”

“Greg Smith Day,” will be Aug. 28, from 4 to 7 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier Holy Cross Hall. It will be a fund-raiser that includes food, music, dancing, a raffle and a carwash.