4-year-old has only 3 months to find her match to cure leukemia

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    ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. (WBAL) — An Anne Arundel County family is looking for help for their 4-year-old daughter who has a small window to find a life-saving treatment.

“They are going to take the blood out of me, and then they are going to put it in a machine and make it into medicine and then put it back in my body,” said Ailani Myers.

Ailani knows a lot about medical treatments.

“She’s done a lot of chemo, radiation, she has had blood transfusions, many blood transfusions,” said long-time family friend and advocate Tamika Cobb.

Ailani has been in treatment for leukemia for more than a year.

“No kid should have to live like that. No kid should have cancer,” Cobb said.

Ailani is strong. She’s fighting at Johns Hopkins Hospital, but she needs a blood cell transplant. In 2019, she received a transplant from her dad.

“Her dad was her first donor, but he’s only a half match, so she really needs to have a 10 out of 10 match,” Cobb said. “They are, like, really great parents. The type of parents that, you know, through all of this, try to make sure she is still learning and they’re trying to stay strong for her.”

The family has been told Ailani has a two- to three-month window to find a perfect match. That’s why the family is sharing their story, hoping people will join the Be the Match registry to save her.

Be the Match is the world’s largest registry. Signing up and swabbing your cheek could make all the difference.

“If you can’t register, pray. And if you can’t register, give the message to your church, give the message to the people you work with, please take the time to register to help Ailani,” Cobb said.

She doesn’t need a miracle. She just needs a match.

“Please make this cancer go away,” Ailani said.

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