BMT Patient Meets Donor

KUSA 9News - Written by, Christina Dickinson, Aug, 2010 -DENVER

Eighteen-year-old Cody Biggerstaff missed most of his high school years fighting cancer.

But after a donor recently gave him bone marrow, the Fort Collins teenager was able to beat leukemia.

Now he's getting ready for his freshman year at CSU.

"I was cut off from the outside world. I was kept in the hospital room for a month and a half, two months," Cody said.

When Cody was diagnosed at the age of 15, his entire family got tested to see if their bone marrow would be a match for Cody.

His youngest sister, McKenna, was a match, but unfortunately, too good of one.

"Pretty much they said I was too perfect of a match, so that it didn't take, because his cells thought my cells were the same," McKenna explained.

So Cody relapsed.

But about a year ago, Cody's transplant coordinator from Presbyterian/St. Luke's had some good news.

A donor match had been found on the national bone marrow registry.  Read the rest of the story>>>