Boy with Leukemia Auctioned Advertising Space on His Head

11-Year-Old Raising Funds for Bone Marrow Donations

Eleven-year-old Pat Pedraja has Leukemia and a dream. He plans to raise money for people who need bone marrow transplants. On his eBay auction site Pedraja states, "Recently, someone I knew died from Leukemia after they were unable to find a matching bone marrow donor. I was scared that one day I may need a bone marrow transplant and may not be able to find a matching donor. That day I decided to do something to help and the idea of DRIVING FOR DONORS was born."

According to Pedraja, 70% of those in need of a bone marrow transplant will ultimately have to rely on the National Marrow Donor Program Registry, because they will likely not find a match within their own families. As daunting as this is, it gets worse - it actually costs people do become a marrow donor. According to the Bone Marrow Foundation, the cost for HLA tissue typing ranges from $45 to $96. This is an obvious limitation in securing bone marrow donations and that's where Pedraja's fund raiser comes into play.

After losing most of his hair to chemotherapy, Pedraja asked his parents for permission to shave his head and sell advertising space to raise money to recruit and fund bone marrow donors. Pedraja posted an auction on eBay selling ad space on his head for a starting bid of $5,000. Sadly, the auction ended on November 12th with no bids, although the family received numerous messages of support.

But Pedraja's dream doesn't end there. He also started a Driving for Donors campaign and hopes to add 2,007 new donors in 2007. Pedraja is collecting donations on his website, DrivingForDonors.com, and will hit the road on May 15, 2007 in the "Donormobile" to raise awareness and secure potential donors for the National Marrow Donor Registry. They'll be on the road for 2 months hitting 20 major cities along the way.