Fort Worth Officer Traveled 1,300 Miles To Donate Bone Marrow
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW) - A Fort Worth police recruit traveled over 1,000 miles to be a bone marrow donor to a 9-year-old boy in Italy.
Recruit Ty Veltre discovered he was a match for the boy when he went through the Hallie's Heroes process when he joined the Academy.
The process was voluntary and the organization gave swab tests to the participating candidates to see if they were a genetic match for someone in need of any kind of transplant.
Veltre then learned that the boy he was a match to has a rare form of leukemia, so he traveled 1,300 miles to Washington D.C. to continue the process.
Veltre said the procedure lasted two hours and he returned home the next day, after which, he returned to light duty for two weeks before returning to full duty.
"It makes me feel really good. I was really glad to do it. I was really excited to do it. I'm anxious to just to see how the boy turns out. They say it's a good success rate and everything like that. So I'm anxious to find out about the boy. But I would do it over and over again," Veltre said.
The recruit also encouraged others to get out and get tested to see if they are a match for anyone in need.
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