Fisher: 6-year-old fighting rare blood disease

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida State football coach Jimbo Fisher and his wife Candi said Friday they have started a fundraising organization to raise money to help their youngest son and others fight a rare life-threatening blood disease.

Both parents also asked people to join the National Marrow Donor Registry during an emotional half-hour news conference.

"There are so many people out there who need bone marrow transplants who can't find the right match," Candi Fisher said. "That's something that you can do to help us."

With a large university auditorium room crowded with friends, media and many Seminole players, the Fishers said 6-year-old Ethan suffers from Fanconi anemia and will eventually require a bone marrow transplant. Roughly 1,000 children in the U.S. have the disorder, which is frequently discovered when a child is suspected to have the flu.

Ethan and his 10-year-old brother, Trey, posed for photos with their mom and dad prior to the start of the news conference, but did not stay for the announcement. Trey has been screened and does not have the disease.

Once considered untreatable, the recessive gene disorder affects roughly one of every 300,000 people. Because the disease is so rare, it has been hard for researchers to obtain federal grants to help them in pursuit of a cure.

But Ethan's specialist, Dr. Margaret MacMillan, and the Fishers want to change that.

"We are in this to win the fight against Fanconi anemia on behalf of all the children who share this struggle with Ethan," the second-year Florida State coach said Friday. "We're here to find a cure."

Candi Fisher, who will head the Kidz 1st Fund to raise money through the sale of t-shirts, wristbands and online donations. Jimbo Fisher said he will donate all fees from public speaking appearances to the fund.

Nick Saban, who was Fisher's boss at LSU a decade ago, was among the first to contribute to the Fisher's newly created foundation.

"When it comes to relationships, they're way more important than playing football games," Saban said.

Florida State assistant baseball coach Mike Martin Jr., who has two sons the same age as Trey and Ethan and is close to their family, said there was never any doubt that Fisher and his wife would get involved in a project to accelerate research into the disease.

"After the initial shock, Jimbo said, 'watch this, watch us tackle this one,"' Martin related. "They're going to meet it head on."

Fisher said dealing with Ethan's illness, diagnosed March 28 at Shands Hospital, has been easily the most difficult thing he's faced.

"The unknown was the greatest fear," he said. "You have to know whether it's good, bad or indifferent so you can get a plan of attack. Then you get everything together and go after it."

That led them to the University of Minnesota and MacMillan, a Canadian-born pediatric blood and marrow transplant physician.

MacMillan said children are generally diagnosed with Fanconi anemia around age 7 and the median age for the transplant is 11. Survival rates for Fanconi anemia patients have dramatically improved in recent years, but the disorder also heightens the chance of an individual being afflicted with cancer or leukemia later in life.

"The good thing for Ethan is he's very healthy right now," MacMillan said.

MacMillan said the survival rate after an unrelated donor bone marrow transplant has increased from less than 30 percent to more than 80 percent in the last 15 years.

"Our goal is nothing short of 100 percent survival," she said.

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www.kidz1stfund.com