15-year-old to donate bone marrow to his dad

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    BLACKFOOT, Idaho (East Idaho News) — A Blackfoot teenager is donating his bone marrow to save his father’s life.

On July 2, 2019, doctors diagnosed Roger Valentin with leukemia. Initial treatments worked, and Valentin’s cancer went into remission. Bad news came again toward the end of May: The cancer was back.

“It was devastating and put the whole worry back in my head,” Valentin told EastIdahoNews.com. “It’s a scary situation, not something you want to go through.”

One treatment for leukemia is a bone marrow transplant. The National Marrow Donor Program describes bone marrow as soft, spongy tissue inside your bones that makes blood-forming cells. In a bone marrow transplant, the unhealthy bone marrow in a sick person is replaced by a healthy person’s.

After several failed attempts to find the right candidate for a transplant, doctors suggested that Valentin’s 15-year-old son Kayden could be the solution. After a few tests, Kayden, an active teenager, came back as a match.

“I got to help my dad, and hopefully he can get better,” Kayden said. “It’s my dad. If I can help him (in) any way, I’m going to do it.”

Valentin said he did not even know what to say when he found out his son wanted to help.

“I raised a better son than I thought I did,” Valentin said. “You made me the proudest father in the world.”

Being a bone marrow donor does not come pain-free. In early September, doctors will use a large needle to go into Kayden’s pelvic bone and extract the tissue. Kayden, a football player at Blackfoot High School, will have to miss a few weeks of the season to recover.

“I don’t want him to be in pain,” Valentin said. “He doesn’t care.”

Valentin had been the sole provider for his family. His cancer has slowed him down, and he’s excited for a chance to get back to normal. Kayden said over the years, throwing a football or fixing a car with his dad has always brought him joy.

“No one was expecting my dad to get cancer. He was always a healthy, strong guy,” Kayden said. “But we’ve always looked at the positive. We’ve all had to step up and help out the family. … It’s taught us that we all have each other’s backs.”

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