Jon Stewart reaches out to bone marrow donors

JON STEWART

Question: How did you become involved with bone marrow donation and specifically the “Hope for Kai” Drive?

Stewart: It’s one of those things that I just happened to find out about locally. I happened to see a flier up and obviously having children of that age myself, it … kind of penetrates you pretty easily. I mean, it would anyway. But it’s one of those things — it was just like a little bit of a wakeup call, a little bit of a shock to the head.

Q: What’s your role?

Stewart: Like everybody else — coming out. Only three out of 10 find a donor in their families, so there’s seven out of 10 [that don't]. The nice part is, if they can get the right match on the marrow, they’ve really made advances. Basically, it’s just like everybody else — trying to get as many people to swab as possible, and seeing what they can find. Then, if it doesn’t match with Kai, maybe it matches with somebody else.

Q: So you’ve registered today to be a donor?

Stewart: Yes, that’s right. And the nice part is, I think the assumption was you’d have to go to the hospital for a week to donate bone marrow but its actually outpatient, its easy. The cheek swab — it’s truly the least you can do. And you get two lollipops out of the deal [chuckles].

Q: Have you had a personal experience that has either affected or enhanced your decision to become involved? Have you ever known anyone personally?

Stewart: Yes, I mean, I think at this point you don’t get to be 46 without knowing people that have gone through this type of trauma. But I think it's just more of a question of sometimes you just see little Kai’s face. And Kai especially — he’s such a sweet one.

Q: Why is it important for celebrities to get involved with charitable causes?

Stewart: Because their bone marrow is so delicious [chuckles]. If it draws a little extra attention that’s a wonderful thing, but the truth is it's really important for everybody. This truly is like a numbers game. It’s just statistics. The more people you get, the more opportunity there is, not just for Kai but for anybody. These types of rare blood disorders, it’s their only shot.

Q: What’s one final thing you want to say to people out there?

Stewart: It’s a cheek swab. It’s an outpatient procedure. In New York City, it may be the most convenient thing you can do. So, I’m just hoping everybody comes out and takes care of it.

DAVID ANDERSON

Q: How does it feel being here today and seeing all these people come out to help your son?

Anderson: I’m just overwhelmed. I’m so touched that so many people are just showing up, and the love and the giving that we have gotten from the community has allowed us to survive the past three or four weeks.

Giacinta Pace This was the flier about Kai that Jon Stewart saw and decided to help.

Q: How is the drive meeting your expectations?

Anderson: This is far beyond anything ... I mean, I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m stunned to just see how many people are here and are registering — not only for Kai but children like Kai and adults that need transplants.

Q: What advice do you have for other families who might be going through a similar situation right now?

Anderson: What we did was, we reached out to the community. My wife is a member of several mothers' groups who are in the downtown area and, when she talked to them, it spread like wildfire.

Q: If you had one thing that you really wanted to express to people about bone marrow donation for your son and for other people as well, what would you want them to know?

Anderson: I would want them to know that registration is extraordinarily easy. You just swab your mouth with a Q-tip. Donation is also very simple, very straightforward. A lot of people seem to think that when you hear the word bone marrow transplant, they think surgery, they think pain, they think complicated. It’s none of those. Just taking a couple hours of your life can give somebody else a lifetime.

Q: How is your son feeling now? How’s he doing?

Anderson: Last week, he was really low because of the chemotherapy but his blood counts have started to come back up again, so he’s in better spirits now. He’s walking around the apartment, and he’s talking and he’s playing with his brother. It’s good and then bad, because now he’s going to start the next round of consolidation. So now they’re going to give him another round of the chemotherapy, which will drive his counts back down again. He has a long journey ahead of him.

Q: What are some of the things that your son enjoys doing?

Anderson: He loves playing with Legos. He loves drawing. He loves sending little letters to his friend and receiving letters from his friends. Reading. He loves playing in the sandbox, he loves digging. He’s really upset, because of his immune system we can’t take him to the sandbox anymore. There are too many germs there. The other day he said, ‘I want to go to the playground. I want to go to play in the sand’ and we told him he couldn’t and he just cried and cried and cried. It was like trying to explain to him why he couldn’t — is very difficult.

Interviewed by Giacinta Pace, NBC News.

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