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On a mission to find donors

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published April 18, 2007

A year after being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Pat Pedraja, 11, of Palm Harbor is surging ahead with his dream: Signing up 2,007 potential bone marrow donors in 2007.

On Tuesday, Pat kicked off his Driving for Donors tour at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa, where Pat has received chemotherapy. He collected tissue samples from 73 people and picked up a $5,000 donation from the hospital to help cover the $52 per person for tissue testing. The results become part of a national database to match donors with those needing a bone marrow transplant.

Pat doesn't need a transplant, but worries that someday he might. So starting May 5, after another donor drive in Tampa, Pat, his mother, Claudine Andrews, and other family members will jump into a recreational vehicle loaned by RV Sales of Broward to travel to 30 cities, including Miami and Seattle, where the mayors have signed on to help rally potential donors.

"He's committed to what he wants to do," said Dr. Cameron Tebbi, medical director of pediatric hematology and oncology at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital. "And that takes a lot of courage."

How to help

Bone marrow donation

-To find out more about marrow donation, go to www.marrow.org.

-To donate or find out more about Pat's Driving for Donors project, go to www.drivingfor donors.com or call the Driving for Donors team at (407) 460-9241.

[Last modified April 17, 2007, 22:29:03]