According to Be The Match, there are more than 39 million possible donors in their database and, sadly, not one of them has what he needs. NBC 7’s Dana Williams reports.
A 14-year-old boy in San Diego is searching for a stem cell donor to help him battle leukemia for a second time.
“You walk around and anybody you see you go, ‘I wonder if they could be the one,” Russ Riehl, Chase Riehl’s dad, told NBC 7.
Chase was diagnosed in May 2022. According to Russ Riehl, Chase was active and enjoyed sports like football and soccer, along with hanging out with his friends and family. Then, a few months before being diagnosed he began to slow down.
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“You know, it started with little bouts of fatigue, [he] had some leg pain,” Riehl said. “At first, we chalked it up to growing pains.”
However, after two rounds of blood testing, his white blood cell count grew “astronomically” and the Riehls were told it was cancer.
“It was unbelievable, I think is the best way to say it,” Riehl said. “You just don’t believe that it’s true. You hope that there was a laboratory mistake because it’s hard to fathom. It’s hard to wrap your head around.“
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After several rounds of chemotherapy, Chase received a bone marrow transplant from his mom.
“She was the best match they could find for him and she was a 50% match,” Riehl said. “He fully accepted her bone marrow, but it was just not enough to keep the leukemia away.”
Chase relapsed, and now needs a stem cell donor who is a better match.
“You know, although you always have that concern in the back of your head, ‘it could happen,’ we were pretty optimistic and so that one was, I think, more devastating than the first one,” Riehl said.
Russ Riehl is an employee at Palomar Health and has been there for 20 years. The medical center held a donor sign-up event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 13 to encourage people to see if they can help Chase. According to Be The Match, there are more than 39 million possible donors in their database and, sadly, not one of them has what he needs.
“From a genetic standpoint, he’s a mixed ethnicity, so he’s Caucasian and part South Pacific Islander,” Riehl said. Riehl explained that donors with a similar makeup are likely to be a stronger match for Chase, but this is part of the challenge.
“We really do need to even the playing field because, right now, if you’re Caucasian you have a 79% chance of finding a match, but all of the way down to [Black or] African-American you only have a 29% chance,” Miranda Kougher, with Be The Match, told NBC 7.
Kougher travels around southern California encouraging people to sign up to become a possible donor. It is a deeply personal cause to her, as she has had multiple relatives who have battled cancer and some who have lost.
“None of us are pure 100% whatever anymore,” Kougher said, while collecting sign-ups at the Palomar Health event. “We’re a medley of ethnicities, so the more people that come out the more we have that chance to find the match for him.”
Kougher explained that even if people sign up and are not a match for Chase, they are added to the database and able to help save a life, when it is needed. Although, most people who sign up to be possible donors never actually end up donating. Kougher also mentioned that Be The Match helps remove any obstacles for donors by, for example, reimbursing any missed work for appointments, paying for travel, hotels, child care and more.
“If anybody has an inkling of interest, whether it's for Chase or for somebody else, the ability to do something to save somebody’s life is, you know, there’s nothing else we could ask for,” Riehl said.
To be eligible, possible donors must be between the ages of 18 years old and 40 years old and in generally good health. For more information on how to become a donor and help Chase, and others like him, click here.
