Cameron Archer
In January 2005, Cameron Archer began getting a lot of bruises. His dad, Randy, thought someone was beating him up on the playground, so he made an appointment to talk to someone at Cameron's school.
The night before, Cameron got sick to his stomach. With all of the bruising, Cameron's parents were worried to take him to the doctor. They thought they would think he was being abused, but, thinking he had the flu, they took him anyway.
Their doctor was concerned that with the bruises something else was wrong with Cameron, so he ran a blood test. The blood test revealed that Cameron had cancer and he was diagnosed on January 31 with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML).
Cameron spent the entire summer undergoing treatment at Children's Hospital in Omaha, NE. Several times during his treatment he got so sick he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. He often received blood products as part of his treatment.
"We didn't keep track of the actual number of units of blood products he used, but I'm sure it was over 100," said Randy. "There were some days when he needed more than one transfusion."
Cameron is now in remission.
The Archer family is thankful for the blood that was donated for Cameron's use and wants to encourage people to keep giving.
"Just look at the kids," said Randy. "You can't find any better reason to donate blood."