Many people are coming together in support of a 9 year old girl who was diagnosed with Leukemia. Now, the search is on for a bone marrow donor who can help her.
Mia Amendolagine is a 9 year old girl full of life. She was born in Italy and moved to Fresno about 2 years ago, an always healthy child who now faces the biggest battle of her young life
"She ended up having an ear infection, her mom felt something wasn’t right and they did more testing and found out she did in fact have leukemia," said Stephen Zoller.
The agressive form of Leukemia was diagnosed in mid April. Mia spent more than a month at Valley Children’s Hospital and is on her second round of chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant is next.
"Perhaps we find Mia’s donor today but if not hopefully there’s some other donor out there from this registry so we can help better someone’s life," Zoller said.
Mia’s classmates and their parents decided they wanted Malloch Elementary to host a blood drive and bone marrow registry. Donors were given team Mia t-shirts and bracelets were sold.
"It’s frightening if it happened to any kid seemingly healthy and then this horrible diagnosis," Jamie Bellew said.
"It means a lot to me because if I was in this family’s shoes this family deserves everything that we can do to help them," said Noelle Rodriguez.
The transplant means Mia will be able to begin treatment in Stanford and return to one of her favorite places, school. And while she’s staying strong and optimistic, it also means a new life.