Grandmother steps up to improve marrow registry; legislation planned

Jada Bascom is a typical 10-year-old.

Her younger brother annoys her. Her favorite movie is “The BFG,” and she loves to ride her green bike.

“I go super fast,” she said. “I’m the bravest one.”

The Deer Park fifth-grader honed her courage early.

Shortly after her April 2007 birth, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive cancer that begins in the bone marrow.

Chemotherapy didn’t work.

“We were told for her to be able to survive she would need a bone marrow transplant,” recalled her grandmother, Jeana Moore.

But out of 7 million people in the National Bone Marrow Registry at the time, not one match was found.

So they broadened the search to Europe – another 4 million people, and finally a match was found in Germany.

On Nov. 27, 2007, Jada received the lifesaving transplant. And then her family watched. They waited. They prayed.

“I had to be in the hospital for, like, a long time,” said Jada. “If someone wanted to visit they had to wear a mask. You had to feed me through a tube, and my parents were so worried.”

They had reason to be. Their daughter battled graft-versus-host disease. When Jada finally turned the corner, her grateful grandmother launched the Jada Bascom Foundation – determined to raise awareness about the importance of bone marrow registration.

In 2009, Moore began a 15-month walk across the country. Her Steps To-Marrow Walk prompted 2,392 people to register with the National Bone Marrow Registry.

She didn’t stop there.

In September 2012, Moore finished a trek through Germany, Switzerland and Italy, walking more than 1,000 miles over 137 days from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea.

Torsten Huber, the German man who donated his bone marrow to Jada, joined Moore for stretches of both walks. He has become part of their extended family.

November is National Marrow Awareness Month.

An email from the Indiana-based Children’s Organ Transplant Association said nearly 10,000 U.S. patients are waiting for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant.

The need is great, and so is Jeana Moore’s determination to spread the word.

She’s not alone in her quest.

On Friday at the Jada Bascom Foundation’s annual Step-by-Step Fundraising Dinner, Keirsten Lyons was presented with the foundation’s Rekindle Life Award.

Lyons’ son Sgt. Jacob Hess was a 22-year-old Marine who was killed in Afghanistan in 2014. He was also a bone marrow donor. Before he deployed, he learned his donated marrow had saved the life of a single mother of two.

Each year around Hess’ February birthday, Lyons holds a combination blood and bone marrow drive. She calls it Jake’s Birthday Drive.

“The Jada Bascom Foundation has been enrolling potential bone marrow donors at Jake’s Birthday Drive ever since,” said Moore.

Also at the fundraising dinner, Sen. Shelly Short and Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber, both of the 7th Legislative District, announced legislation that will be presented to the Washington state Legislature in the 2018 session.

The legislation is a very simple idea that the foundation has been working toward for several years – a checkbox on driver’s license application that connects interested applicants with the national marrow donor program, Be The Match.

“A good friend’s daughter recently passed away due to leukemia,” Maycumber said. “This (issue) is close to my heart.”

Short said, “It’s all about creating awareness and interest, but the education piece is so important.”

They are still hammering out the details and the language of the legislation, and both said addressing privacy concerns is paramount.

If the legislation is adopted, Short said, “We may be the first state in the nation to do this.”

Moore is thrilled at the prospect.

“We’re very excited to be the model,” she said.

The 65-year-old grandmother’s relentless resolve has resulted in pending legislation, thousands of miles walked, and thousands of registered bone marrow donors.

And she’s not done yet.

The desperation she felt when her granddaughter was in urgent need of a donor is never far from her thoughts.

She ran work-worn fingers through Jada’s long strawberry locks.

“The goal is still to enroll potential bone marrow donors,” Moore said. “The more people are informed and educated about the registry, the more will join, more matches will be found and more lives will be saved.”