Stem cell donor needed for 4-year-old with rare blood disease – CBC

Mom organizing booth at Indigenous Day in hopes of finding ‘genetic twin’

Jun 19, 2018

Tanner McLeod was just six months old when he was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder called sideroblastic anemia.

He’s unable to produce healthy red blood cells, so he has to have a blood transfusion every three weeks when his hemoglobin levels drop too low.

“As a mother, it can be challenging at times because I am not the one receiving the poke, but it kind of feels like it,” said Miranda McLeod.

She said her now four-and-a-half-year-old son handles the needles like a champ, but says it’s his quality of life that suffers.