Community give child a hero’s homecoming – Thehour.com
By daniellenierenberg
FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) Cole Kelley grinned widely and waved Saturday (Feb. 15) as his head kept swiveling from one direction to the other to take in the amazing view surrounding him.
Hundreds of family members, friends, Mars Hill School classmates and other members of the community lined both sides of the school's parking lot to welcome the 8-year-old home.
The Mars Hill student and his parents, John and Caroline Kelley, had been away from home for 15 months while he has battled a rare disease.
That included a 460-day stay at the National Institutes of Health facility in Bethesda, Maryland, which is one of the few facilities with experience treating the disease dada2, which is a deficiency of the adenosine deaminase 2 (ADA2) enzyme.
According to dada2.org, the disease causes "recurrent strokes, severe systemic inflammation, immune deficiency, and damage to many of the body's tissues and organs."
The community organized the homecoming parade, which included an escort from Florence's police and fire departments, as well as people dressed in superhero outfits.
Along with Cole's classmates, Mars Hill High School cheerleaders joined the crowd, as did the school's football players, who showed up in their jerseys. The long reception line spanned the length of the parking lot coming off Cox Creek Parkway.
The procession made two laps through the parking lot amid loud cheers and flowing tears from the congregation before the family, clearly emotional from the outpouring, drove home.
"It's been amazing," Cole's cousin, Sara Beth Searcy, said while wearing a "Best Day Ever" shirt she bought during a Disney World trip Cole and the family took before his long hospital stay.
"This whole community has supported us from the very beginning," she said. "We could not have gotten through this without this entire community wrapping their arms around us."
Cole classmate Rogan Willingham held a sign that read "God answered our prayers."
"He's prayed, I don't know how many times a day, for Cole," his mother, Ginger Willingham, said.
"I'm glad he's back," Rogan said, adding he looks forward to being able to "play with him and all kinds of stuff."
"I was praying for him a lot," he said.
There were numerous other signs with messages, such as "Sweet Home, Alabama," "Super Cole" and "Welcome home, Buddy."
Emily Stutts, a friend of the family who helped organized the welcome, and fellow member of Jackson Heights Church of Christ, said Cole has been sick since he was 2 months old.
He had a bone transplant at the National Institutes.
"He lived off of having blood transfusions because his body did not make red blood cells," Stutts said. "After a while that became risky because his body can't filter out all the iron. So a bone marrow transplant was the only answer."
He was enrolled in the "Be the Match" bone marrow registry and was a match with a young man from Australia, who had volunteered to join the registry.
"He was able to give the bone marrow and they flew it over to Maryland and did the transplant," Stutts said. "It didn't take initially, and Cole has had three stem-cell transplants, all from the one donation from the Australian man.
"The fact that he's coming home is a miracle, because he had some very, very scary times that they didn't think he would survive. He had zero immune until Christmas day. That day his immune response occurred."
She said John and Caroline often talk about the amazing support they have been receiving back home. A community spaghetti supper, T-shirt sales and a Christmas fundraising event are among methods supporters have used to provide financial assistance for the parents, who have not been able to work during their son's hospitalization.
"The people at the hospital there can't believe the support that they've been given from this community," Stutts said. "They told them they see people from all over the world, but they've never seen the outpouring of love like they saw for the Kelleys.
"They deserve it. They're such good people."
Florence company High Cotton Homes provided assistance in a major way, Stutts said.
"They had to have all new heating and air units and vents put in and a water purification system, all new flooring and all new duct work because of his immune system," she said. "High Cotton took that on, got donations and completely remodeled his room and made it so Cole would have his own bathroom to help with germ prevention."
Cole still is susceptible to sickness and will continue to have medical appointments, Stutts said.
"His liver was damaged from the transplant so he's going to go to Vanderbilt for them to check his liver," she said. "There's still things that need to be addressed, but as far as his bone marrow, that is doing OK."
Stutts said Cole's disease has not kept him down.
"He is full of life," she said. "He's a happy kid. Even though he's been sick, if you had seen him, you would have never know it. He's made a huge impact on the people at the National Institutes for Health because no child's been there that long. That became his family. They had a going-away party at one of the doctor's homes."
The emotions of Saturday's homecoming were obvious among the crowd, many of whom hugged one another and cried.
"The one thing I kept hearing from everybody is it was more emotional than they through it would be," said Ronnie Pannell, family minister at Jackson Heights. It's been a big show of love. Mars Hill loves Cole Kelley, there's no doubt about that.
Link:
Community give child a hero's homecoming - Thehour.com
- Resilient anatomy and local plasticity of naive and stress haematopoiesis - Nature.com - March 26th, 2024
- A Deeper Depth of Response After Salvage Therapy Improves Outcomes of Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in ... - Cureus - March 26th, 2024
- Iron restriction keeps blood stem cells young, researchers find - Phys.org - March 18th, 2024
- Blood drive, bone marrow testing to be held in local woman's memory - The Winchester Star - March 18th, 2024
- Signal of Benefit for Stem Cell Therapy in Progressive MS - Medscape - March 10th, 2024
- Woman, 22, With Leukemia Recalls Symptoms And New Treatment She Received: EXCLUSIVE - TODAY - March 10th, 2024
- This Swedish startup wants to reduce the cost, and controversy, around stem cell production - TechCrunch - March 10th, 2024
- Outcomes and prognosis of haploidentical haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in children with FLT3-ITD mutated ... - Nature.com - March 10th, 2024
- Harmonizing definitions for hematopoietic recovery, graft rejection, graft failure, poor graft function, and donor ... - Nature.com - March 10th, 2024
- Hematopoietic cell transplantation and cell therapy activity landscape survey in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; a report ... - Nature.com - March 10th, 2024
- How an MS friendship led to HSCT and a love of running - Multiple Sclerosis News Today - March 10th, 2024
- Iron Limitation Preserves Youthfulness of Blood Stem Cells - Mirage News - March 10th, 2024
- Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Advanced Systemic Mastocytosis: A retrospective analysis of the ... - Nature.com - March 10th, 2024
- AJMC in the Press, February 23, 2024 - AJMC.com Managed Markets Network - February 24th, 2024
- Orca Bio Presents Promising Data on Orca-T in Two Oral Presentations at the 2024 Tandem Meetings of ASTCT and ... - Yahoo Finance - February 24th, 2024
- New approaches to live-track the production of different types of blood cells in mice - Medical Xpress - February 24th, 2024
- If Other Treatments Aren't Working -- Stem Cell Transplant May Be A Good Option In CLL - SurvivorNet - February 24th, 2024
- Expanding the Horizons of Cell and Gene Therapy - RegMedNet - February 24th, 2024
- The strangers who saved each others lives - BBC - February 24th, 2024
- City of Hope Research Featuring the Successful Treatment of the Oldest Patient to Achieve Remission for Leukemia ... - StreetInsider.com - February 15th, 2024
- 3D printing and material processing combined to create artificial bone - Optics.org - February 15th, 2024
- Man, 63, is in remission from HIV five years after receiving groundbreaking stem cell transplant... - The Sun - February 15th, 2024
- Team demonstrates fabrication method to construct 3D structures that mimic bone microstructure - Phys.org - February 15th, 2024
- Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Their Role in Development and Disease Therapy - The Scientist - February 15th, 2024
- Blood cell family trees trace how production changes with aging - MIT News - February 7th, 2024
- New study on promising stem cell-based therapy for Crohn's disease - Medical Xpress - January 30th, 2024
- Second haploidentical bone marrow transplantation with antithymocyte antibody-containing conditioning regimen for ... - Nature.com - January 30th, 2024
- Stem cell study shows how gene activity modulates the amount of immune cell production in mice - Medical Xpress - January 30th, 2024
- Global Stem Cell Therapy Industry Outlook to 2028, Driven by Therapeutic Innovations and Clinical Advancements ... - Yahoo Finance - January 30th, 2024
- 1st-of-its-kind therapy blocks immune attack after stem-cell transplant - Livescience.com - January 22nd, 2024
- Individualized dose of anti-thymocyte globulin based on weight and pre-transplantation lymphocyte counts in pediatric ... - Nature.com - January 22nd, 2024
- Implications of stress-induced gene expression for hematopoietic stem cell aging studies - Nature.com - January 22nd, 2024
- LVHN announces opening of new stem cell transplant center. Here's what that means for the Lehigh Valley - The Morning Call - January 22nd, 2024
- Fast Five Quiz: Chronic GVHD Risk Factors and Prevention - Medscape Reference - January 22nd, 2024
- Could Treatments for HIV and Sickle Cell Open the Gene Therapy Floodgates? - BioSpace - January 22nd, 2024
- Effects of fine particulate matter on bone marrow-conserved hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells: a systematic ... - Nature.com - January 14th, 2024
- Donating Bone Marrow and Stem Cells: The Process and What To Expect - On Cancer - Memorial Sloan Kettering - January 14th, 2024
- No, Rep. Steve Scalise Didn't Vote Against Stem Cell Research From Which He Is Now Benefiting - Yahoo News - January 14th, 2024
- Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Market to Grow Rapidly During the Study Period (2019-2032), Evaluates ... - PR Newswire - January 14th, 2024
- Life-saving donation from Philly athlete saves life: 'Feeling so strong, I owe that all to him' - AOL - January 14th, 2024
- The Key to Creating Blood Stem Cells May Lie in Your Own Blood - ScienceAlert - January 14th, 2024
- Dr Phillips on the Rationale for the GLOBRYTE Trial in Relapsed/Refractory MCL - OncLive - January 14th, 2024
- COVID-19 and HSCT Recipients: Risk Factors and Prevention Measures - Medriva - January 14th, 2024
- Bone Marrow Transplant: Heres What You Need To Know About This Therapy - Times Now - January 5th, 2024
- New insights about the development of hematopoietic stem cells - Drug Target Review - December 28th, 2023
- Bone Marrow Transplantation | Johns Hopkins Medicine - December 20th, 2023
- Stem Cell or Bone Marrow Transplant | American Cancer Society - December 20th, 2023
- Embryonic-stem-cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells relieve experimental contact urticaria by regulating the functions ... - Nature.com - December 20th, 2023
- Researchers discover crucial step in creating blood stem cells - Phys.org - December 20th, 2023
- A niche topic: understanding the development of hematopoietic stem cells - Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center - December 20th, 2023
- Vertex developed a CRISPR cure. Its already on the hunt for something better. - MIT Technology Review - December 20th, 2023
- FDA approves cure for sickle cell disease, the first treatment to use gene-editing tool CRISPR - NBC News - December 12th, 2023
- First therapy using CRISPR technology will treat sickle cell disease - Morning Brew - December 12th, 2023
- 7 medical breakthroughs that gave us hope in 2023 - National Geographic - December 12th, 2023
- Understanding Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment - Everyday Health - December 12th, 2023
- Mansour bin Zayed witnesses inauguration of ADSCC Bone Marrow Transplant & Cellular Therapy Congress 2023 - ZAWYA - November 26th, 2023
- ADSCC Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Congress 2023 to take place in Abu Dhabi - ZAWYA - November 18th, 2023
- Orchard Therapeutics Reports First Quarter 2023 Financial Results and Announces Initiation of Rolling Submission for Biologics License Application of... - May 16th, 2023
- Family of 7-month-old in need of bone marrow transplant hosting donor registration event - CBS Pittsburgh - May 8th, 2023
- Anika Continues to Expand Addressable Market for Tactoset Injectable Bone Substitute with Additional 510(k) Clearance from FDA - Marketscreener.com - April 5th, 2023
- MorphoSys Completes Enrollment of Phase 3 MANIFEST-2 Study of Pelabresib in Myelofibrosis with Topline Results Expected by End of 2023 -... - April 5th, 2023
- VOR BIOPHARMA INC. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (form 10-K) - Marketscreener.com - March 25th, 2023
- BioRestorative Therapies to Seek FDA Approval to Expand the Clinical Application of BRTX-100 - Marketscreener.com - March 17th, 2023
- BioSenic delivers a new post-hoc analysis of its Phase III JTA-004 trial on knee osteo-arthritis with positive action on the most severely affected... - March 17th, 2023
- JASPER THERAPEUTICS, INC. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS (form 10-K) - Marketscreener.com - March 9th, 2023
- For a range of unmet medical needs, India offers a fantastic opportunity to push cell and gene therapies: B .. - ETHealthWorld - March 9th, 2023
- NGM BIOPHARMACEUTICALS INC Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. (form 10-K) - Marketscreener.com - March 1st, 2023
- Bone health: Tips to keep your bones healthy - Mayo Clinic - January 27th, 2023
- Bone marrow drive held for military wife with cancer - January 27th, 2023
- Bone cancer - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic - January 27th, 2023
- Bone | Definition, Anatomy, & Composition | Britannica - January 19th, 2023
- Bone Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster - January 19th, 2023
- What Is Bone? | NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National ... - January 19th, 2023
- Anatomy of the Bone | Johns Hopkins Medicine - January 19th, 2023
- Bone Health: Is Eating Meat Healthy For Your Bones? - January 19th, 2023
- Bone Keeper | Deepwoken Wiki | Fandom - January 19th, 2023
- With blood and plasma donations in short supply, uniting communities to give the gift of life - Toronto Star - January 3rd, 2023
- Side Effects of a Bone Marrow Transplant (Stem Cell Transplant) - December 25th, 2022
- 28-year-old cancer patient at Nebraska Medicine advocates for diversity in bone marrow registry - KMTV 3 News Now Omaha - December 17th, 2022
- Stem Cell Technologies and Applications Market Report 2022-2032 - Yahoo Finance - December 9th, 2022