High school senior and athlete Marcus DiLeo-Vereen is on hunt for a bone marrow.
DiLeo-Vereen, an-18-year-old football player at William Allen High School in Allentown, is battling Severe Aplastic Anemia and is searching for a lifesaving marrow donation.
Severe Aplastic Anemia is a blood disorder. With this disorder, the bone marrow does not make enough new blood cells. When functioning properly, the bone marrow is supposed to make stem cells that turn into red and white blood cells as well as platelets.
Effects of this disorder can cause irregular heartbeats, an enlarged heart, heart failure, infections, bleeding and sometimes even death.
DiLeo-Vereen takes AP-classes and played three sports, but now he's often tired. and cannot go outside in order to avoid germs. DiLeo-Vereen is registered to attend Temple University this fall and plans to study pre-med. He hopes to have the bone marrow transplant by that time.
Because DiLeo-Vereen has no bone marrow matches in his immediate family, he has registered at Be The Match Registry, relying on strangers who sign up to be anonymous potential donors.
So far, there are no matches on the registry for the teen either.
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William Allen High School is holding an event June 3 in an effort to sign people up as potential donors and find that life-saving match. People can have their cheek swabbed to join the registry.
