Pflugerville officer urges people to donate bone marrow in hopes of saving daughter's life

Pflugerville Police Sergeant Kurk Anderson and his wife Kimberly held one another as they searched for the strength to talk about their daughter’s illness. Less than a week ago what they believed to be was simple nose bleeds turned out to be Aplastic Anemia.

"It's basically an autoimmune disease so her bone marrow just doesn't make bone marrow anymore,” Sgt. Anderson said. “The only hope that we have for her is that we find a match."

Sgt. Anderson said his nine-year-old daughter Camryn was an energetic little girl who loved to play outside and now she is isolated to her room.

Camryn is one of fewer than 20,000 people who are diagnosed with the rare blood disease. Along with blood transfusions she needs a bone marrow transplant.

The disease has not only taken a toll on Camryn but the family as a whole. While it's been difficulat financially, the biggest obstacle has been finding a matching bone marrow donor.

"Honestly for the longest time I didn't even want to tell our friends and I think it was just refusing to accept what is going on but then I realized the other day the more people I reach out to the more people I talk to the better our girls chance is," said Kimberly Anderson.

The Andersons have turned to their fellow men and women behind the badge at the Pflugerville Police Department and the Law Enforcement Association of Pflugerville for support. They are asking for any monetary donations, blood donations and for people to join the bone marrow registry if not for Camryn than to help someone else.

“We started a drive for more people to donate blood to donate bone marrow or at least go out and get tested so that another family like ours does not have to sit here and have this conversation," Sgt. Anderson said.

The Andersons plan to host a bone marrow and blood drive September 15th at the Pflugerville High School Football stadium. People can also register to donate at bethematch.org and the family’s GoFundMe