Malverne High bone marrow drive hopes to save student

Dimitrius Wilson has always wanted to be a doctor so he could help people, said his mother, Jacklyn.

But if that’s to be in the 15-year-old’s future, the family is asking for the community’s help now.

The Wilson family is hoping a bone marrow drive being held at Malverne High School on Wednesday will result in a match for Dimitrius, a freshman at the high school who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia two years ago.

The bone marrow drive will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the high school gymnasium and will be administered by Be The Match, a national marrow donor program, said Kristin Burban, a math teacher at the high school.

Burban said the school is also holding a joint blood drive from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., which is open to the community.

To take part in the bone marrow drive -- which requires just four cheek swabs -- participants must be between the ages of 18 and 60, Burban said.

Jacklyn Wilson said Dimitrius has spent much of the last two years in the hospital or recovering at home, and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park.

Her son’s doctors are looking for a match in order to do a bone-marrow transplant after he finishes chemotherapy. No one in her family is a match.

“It’s been a very hard and difficult road for him,” Jacklyn Wilson, 59, who graduated from Malverne High School, said of Dimitrius. “But he’s strong with courage.”

She said Dimitrius has had a number of complications that almost cost him his life, including bouts of fungal pneumonia and septic shock.

She said it has also been a difficult time for the rest of her family, but they’ve appreciated the support from the community. She said five of Dimitrius’ teachers visited their home in Rockville Centre to teach him there, and she is grateful the school is holding the bone marrow drive.

She hopes people realize that the first step is a simple cheek swab, which will put that person on the register to determine a potential match now and in the future.

“We still have hope, that’s why we are running a drive,” she said. “We want the public to understand that with just the swabbing of your cheek, you can save a child’s life. Not just my child but any child that has something like this.”