Chinese boy, 11, gives father life-saving bone marrow after gaining 18kg to be a donor
- Lu Zikuan’s dad needed the transplant to treat a type of blood cancer, and his eldest son turned out to be a match
- He didn’t weigh enough so he started having five meals a day to reach the goal
An 11-year-old boy in central China has given his father the best birthday present ever – a life-saving bone marrow transplant – after deliberately gaining 18kg so that he could be a donor.
His father, Lu Yanheng, had for years battled a debilitating type of blood cancer that had left him almost bedridden at home in Henan province, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Tuesday.
Lu finally told his children last year that he had cancer, one of the myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and that he needed a spinal bone marrow transplant to treat the condition.
His two sons and daughter all wanted to donate their spinal marrow, but it was his eldest son, Lu Zikuan, who turned out to be a match back in February, according to the report.
The only problem was, Zikuan did not weigh enough to be a donor.
He had to gain at least 15kg to be able to undergo the transplant procedure, so the family in Hui county, Longnan, set about achieving the goal.