Annual blood drive to include search for bone marrow donor for Dyker boy
An annual community blood drive is looking for more than just blood this year — it’s searching for the person who could save the life of a six-year-old Dyker Heights boy through a bone marrow donation.
This yearly event is being held at P.S. 102 in memory of Mathiew Johnson, an avid blood donor, who also worked at the school as a janitor.
For the past two years, alongside her husband, his mother June Johnson has coordinated the blood drive. For this year’s event, Johnson is using the day not only to collect lifesaving blood donations but also as a platform to discover a bone marrow match for John Faro Vitale, a six-year-old boy currently battling a rare blood disease called Fanconi Anemia. The blood drive hopes finally to provide the young boy with a matching bone marrow donor.