My son Rowan is the first in my family to get a diagnosis of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome. Four generations of my family's boys have died from this immune deficiency and bleeding disorder without knowing why. Rowan was diagnosed with WAS in 2014 after many bleeds and infections that landed him in the hospital. We were in the right place at the right time for diagnosis. He received a stem cell transplant at BC Children's Hospital from an unrelated cord blood donor from outside of North America in August 2014 at the age of 23 months (almost two years old). He received multiple blood products during his treatment including platelets, red blood cells, and IVIG. Without the generous donors of blood products he would not be alive today. Considering there was exactly one match for him in the entire world, it is a true miracle he had a chance at all.
