Slow, insidious, her story began six to eight weeks before our visit to Sick Kids on February 9, 1996. A doctor told us, if we had waited one more week, Deidre would have spontaneously bled to death. We were lucky three times. Once because of her tiredness, irritability and mysterious bruising was increasing, small purple bruising of the capillaries, (known as petechiae) were appearing. Now we were getting scared and took her to our family doctor who ordered a blood test immediately. Secondly, a very observant lab technician, who did extra tests, called our doctor once the results showed an abnormality. Thirdly, our doctor was strong and determined enough to work through the proper channels of The Hospital for Sick Children and convince them that the tests were correct, no matter how improbably it might seem. Deidre's test indicated that she should not really be alive with her various blood counts.

At the age of 5 ½, Deidre was diagnosed with Severe Idiopathic Aplastic Anemia. Her bone marrow was no longer producing red blood cells that carry oxygen to the rest of her body, white cells to fight off infection, and platelets to clot the blood; without production of these cells Deidre would die within about a year. This is a fairly rare condition for a child as young as Deidre.

After a number of tests, no family member was a proper match; drug therapy was sadly unsuccessful after 2 ½ months of trying. That only left a Matched Unrelated Bone Marrow Transplant. Her own body flora was now infecting Deidre and time was running out. We now had to search the Bone Marrow Bank for a possible match. The Canadian bank for bone marrow is in Vancouver.

The wonderful world of computers allow for quick access to the world of people who register for bone marrow donation. In early May a match was found and on May 23, 1996, Deidre received her second chance at life.

She suffered through Graft-Vs-Host Disease of the Gut, Shingles, side effects from high doses of a variety of medications (with their effects- remove) and numerous other problems too many to mention here. Even though we knew that countless more hurdles awaited her, Deidre always confidently marched to overcome all the challenges that awaited her. She was determined and stubborn, said that she would beat this and show the world it can be done. Not only that but she wanted to learn how to ride a bike and join her friends.

While all this was going one, we created a fund to assist us with potential future costs. With the help of many wonderful volunteers, nurses from the Milton District Hospital MDS Laboratory Services staff, and friends, a bone marrow donor clinic was organized on March 10, 1996. Today it holds the North American record for being the largest single-family one-day clinic, putting 2004 people on the registry. Over 3000 people attended, this from a town of 33,000, unbelievable, but true.

During this transition period, i.e., while she was fighting not to have the transplant reject her, a decision was made to create a foundation to help other families; at this time we were not aware what Deidre's out come would be, but we knew first hand what it meant to have an entire community behind us. Watching too many families at Sick Kids fall apart that did not have the financial, spiritual, and emotional support such as we had: gave us the incentive to carry on this spirit created in Milton.

On July 12th, two weeks prior to her 6th birthday, we left Toronto Sick Kids and went home to Milton. It was a time of mixed emotions, we were happy to be going home but very apprehensive about what laid ahead, the future did not look bright, the challenges and worries of dealing with all the potential problems of a child that had received a bone marrow transplant was frightening. But through perseverance and divine grace all challenges were dealt with. On July 26th we celebrated her birthday with a few of her closest friends. A BIG no, no, but sometimes you just have to do the right thing; precautions were taken to protect her.

On December 24th my wife had to take Deidre to Sick Kids for an emergency removal of her 'Hickman' due to a potential serious problem. To keep life normal, as previously planned, I took the other two children (Zak & Desiree) to my parents for our annual family Christmas celebration. About 8 pm that evening my wife and Deidre showed up, and to my amazement, Deidre seemed to be so much better. It was like a miracle. For the first time I felt renewed hope and knew that a miraculous corner had been turned. From that moment on she blossomed. Not that there weren't any further problems, believe you me there were, but one just knew that we going to be okay and life was slowly returning to an acceptable level of normality.

Today Deidre is confidently striving to overcome any challenges ahead. Not that all hurdles have been overcome but we now know that with belief and determination, most things can be dealt with. One has to adjust and bide their time but you can make changes that will provide you the best opportunity to meet any challenges and give you the strength to move ahead.