BURBANK : Bone Marrow Search for Ailing Boy to End

The last in a series of blood testing drives to save a Burbank boy suffering from leukemia who needs a bone marrow transplant will be held Saturday at a local Catholic church.

“The money has stopped coming in. After this Saturday’s drive there probably won’t be another,” said Peg Setti, organizer of the effort to find a donor for 11-year-old Greg Smith, a fifth-grader at St. Francis Xavier Elementary School.

More than 1,000 people have been tested in the search, primarily organized by volunteers from St. Francis Xavier Church at 3808 Scott Road, Burbank. Saturday’s event will be held from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Saturday.

“It’s incredible, when there really is a need for humanity to respond, they’ve come forward,” said Greg’s father, Ron. “I can’t say enough.”

The boy’s chemotherapy treatments have been stopped because an infection has developed.

Greg has been fighting the disease for two years, and it was not until a relapse in January that doctors and his family knew that he would need a bone marrow transplant to survive.

One potential donor has been found who would be compatible in five of six tissue categories, but his family and supporters are still hoping for the ideal donor.

The bone marrow donor blood tests are $45 each, but the American Red Cross is covering half the cost and more than $21,000 has been raised for the testing drive.

According to the American Red Cross, the chances of finding a matching donor increases among people of the same racial group. Greg has a Spanish, Scottish and German heritage.

“It’s absolutely a situation that’s in God’s hands,” Ron Smith said.