LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — In September of 2023, a Central Arkansas girl and her family were searching for a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant.
10-year-old Samantha Andrews has battled acute myeloid leukemia (AML) twice in her young life.
With lots of hope, faith, and a huge community behind the Andrews family, the life-changing bone marrow transplant Samantha needed became a reality.
Last year, Serena Andrews searched for her daughter Samantha’s perfect match through a donor drive.
“We ended up getting more than 600 people that came out to the Benton area and that ended up getting us to over 1,000 donors,” Serena said.
Serena said this outcome was incredible, especially since she hoped for at least 500 people.
“We had an astounding amount of people come,” Serena said.”
Unfortunately, none of these donors ended up being a match. In fact, with more than 11.5 million people in the worldwide database for donors, Samantha only had two 100% matches.
“For only two people to match, that blew my mind, I didn't realize it'd be that few,” Serena said.
While no matches came from the drive in September, Samantha’s perfect match instead came from that database, all the way from Germany.
“The transplant happened on December 15 and we had no idea what to expect with a transplant,” Serena said.
Thankfully, good news was on the horizon.
“She's at 99.9% fully donor cells in her bone marrow, which is amazing,” Serena said. “That's where we want her to be, if not at 100%.”
By any measure, Samantha’s transplant was successful.
“I get excited about everything, and I'm like ‘Sam you're in remission!’ She just said I know,” Serena explained. “She knew. She could just feel in her body that she was feeling well.”
Even though remission is exciting news, the journey to remission took time and a toll on Samantha’s body.
“We weren't discharged until January 11,” Serena said. “Through that time, she was on oxygen for about a week and a half. She was on heavy medicine that ended up putting her to sleep where she really couldn't wake up for the most part. It was a scary time.”
Samantha also went through radiation, meaning big changes for the whole family, all to keep her safe.
“With chemotherapies and radiation, you're still more susceptible to getting cancer again,” Serena explained. “She must be covered head to toe always. So, we're very much more aware of everything around us.
Despite this new lifestyle, the Andrews family is in good spirits.
“It’s very much worth it because we have our healthy girl who’s on her road to full recovery,” Serena said.