McCandless family looks for bone marrow donor for 7-month-old girl
MCCANDLESS, Pa. (KDKA) -- A family from McCandless is hoping to find a bone marrow donor for their 7-month-old child, and time is growing short to save the baby's life.
Clementine Blackham is truly darling. She's 7 months old with a smile that could melt a heart of stone. But all is not what it seems.
After Clementine was born, doctors discovered this beautiful little child was dealing with a horribly ugly situation. The baby has a gene mutation in her TLR8 gene.
As her mom Tanner Neely explained, this means the baby will go into bone marrow failure syndrome, her bone marrow will stop working and she will stop producing blood. Clementine's only hope is she gets a bone marrow transplant.
There is one person the family knows may be the perfect donor: Clementine's 3-year-old sister Finley.
Tanner and her husband aren't sure they want to subject their other daughter to a painful operation, not to mention the trauma it may cause their oldest child if all their best efforts fail. Finley already has a lot of questions about her little sister's future.
Tanner Neely says Finley is always asking why her sister is sick and if she's going to live.
"No 3-year-old should ask if her baby sister is going to live," Tanner said.
This is why Clementine's family is asking for help and that can be done by clicking here.
For now, the family waits but wastes no time in giving little Clementine the best life she can have. As Tanner Neely told KDKA-TV's Ross Guidotti, "We celebrate everything. We got her baptized this weekend and had a big party. She tried the food and we had a big party we took her to Disney world because she might not ever get back to Disney world."