Monday, January 11, 2010

Steven's Leukemia, age 13, Son of Cathy & Devon Beachey, IN


Roberts, a fire engineer and paramedic with the Tulare Fire Department, got invited to Indiana because he helped save the life of STEVEN BEACHEY, 13, by donating his own bone marrow to help cure Steven's leukemia. The boy's grateful parents, CATHY and DEVON BEACHEY, invited the Roberts family to visit their Amish community outside Topeka. Nine years ago, when he was in the Air National Guard, Roberts signed up to be a bone marrow donor. He forgot about it until mid-2008 when the C.W. Bill Young Marrow Donor Center called. He was a match for a 12-year-old boy in need of bone marrow stem cells. Roberts, 31, didn't hesitate. "Definitely I'm interested" he said. Fellow firefighters and city employees donated time so he could go to the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Roberts didn't know it then, but 12 hours later the bone marrow was administered to Steven in Indianapolis. Rodnie and Emily Roberts always wondered who got it and what happened. A year later, the marrow center e-mailed Rodnie Roberts a phone number in Indiana. Click here to read all of this amazing story in the Fresno Bee, Columnist - Lewis Griswold. Posted at 8:53 PM on Saturday, Jan. 09, 2010.