Success Stories: Brad Harden

Brad Harden was an active, seemingly healthy 22-year-old when he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. Chemotherapy and radiation couldn’t keep his cancer in remission, but stem cell therapy from a cord blood donor saved his life.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy initially put Brad’s cancer into remission, but it came back quickly. He was forced to look at alternative treatments, and was put on a bone marrow patient list while doctors searched for a matching donor. As an African-American, Brad’s options for bone marrow cells were limited as there are fewer African-American bone marrow donors.

Using stem cells from an umbilical cord blood donor, doctors were able to successfully transplant healthy cells into Brad’s system, which boosted his immune system and created more blood cells.

Brad’s sister, Nicole, decided to donate her baby’s umbilical cord because of her brother’s life-saving stem cell transplant.

Read more on cord blood, and the life-saving benefits of stem cells.