John's Story

Did your blood donation save little John McDonald?

For many years, Kay McDonald has been running on autopilot.  As the busy mom of five children, her days consist of breaking up sibling squabbles, drying tears over hurt feelings, cajoling a little one who refuses to eat yucky green vegetables, conducting frantic searches for missing shoes, socks, backpacks, toys and library books, and churning out laundry – endless laundry.  She drives kids to school, extracurricular activities, sports events and birthday parties.  She has made thousands of peanut butter sandwiches and could skate blindfolded through the grocery store plucking staples off the shelves to feed her hungry brood.

At the end of every day, like all moms, she is exhausted and relishes a collapse on the sofa for a few minutes of peace and blessed inactivity.  She likes to say a prayer and thank God for getting her through another day.

But most of all, these days, she is grateful – make that ecstatic—that she no longer has to drive her son John to San Antonio for chemotherapy.  Because for three and a half years, she has navigated the distance from her home in New Braunfels to a pediatric oncology office in San Antonio three to five days per week to receive painful, frightening, expensive treatment for her precious, spunky, adorable little boy.

John was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) at age two, just 11 days after the birth of his baby sister Bridget.  Thus began the McDonald family’s voyage into unknown, unwanted, unimaginably terrifying territory.  The news that this healthy, happy child’s body was being invaded by dreaded cancer cells devastated Kay, her husband Jimmy, and John’s older siblings – Frances, now 13, James, now 11, and Elizabeth, now 9.  The prognosis from the beginning was fairly good … but treatment and recovery would prove to be lengthy and arduous with an uncertain outcome.

Just five and a half years old now, John has been examined, tested, treated and needled more than most people endure in a lifetime.  But his confidence has never flagged … he has not complained … he has been a model of courage, faith and resilience.  And his family has never given up.

Now John is in remission, the clouds have lifted and you can feel the collective joy of the McDonalds and their many loving supporters.

Those dreaded days are behind Kay, Jimmy and their family.  And they are looking forward to a summer of normalcy.  They can’t remember what normal is, but they know it will be better than the past three years.  And the entire family is giddy about their upcoming trip to Disney World, a gift from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  It will be their first big family vacation and it represents healing on many levels.

In the fall, little John will accompany his siblings to the Catholic school that has been the family’s mainstay throughout this ordeal.  He will be in kindergarten and no one will guess when they see the bright, shiny face of this delicate-featured, handsome little boy with the trusting hazel eyes … that he has traveled so far, so miraculously, to make this joyful leap to healthy, normal schoolboy.

It could be your blood donation that saved him. 

Often, especially during the first two years of treatment, John needed blood transfusions – in fact, the very first treatment he received upon diagnosis was a blood transfusion.  Kay is overwhelmed at the thought that a stranger gave blood – a simple, beautiful act – and saved her child’s life.  Someone gave up time he or she could have spent watching a movie or dining with friends or taking their own child to the park.  Someone, somewhere – perhaps you – sacrificed time and gave blood so that John could live.  It’s such a profound gift that Kay has begun giving blood – finding time in her complicated schedule to do for someone else what another donor – many other donors – have done for her son.

Recently, she donated platelets for the first time.  And her husband Jimmy, a longtime blood donor, has quietly recruited others to follow his lead.  After all, who could hear his story and refuse?  Kay says she can’t believe she never gave before now.  “It’s such an easy thing.  I think of all the years I could have and should have … but it’s never too late to start, is it?”

The McDonalds are grateful to family, friends, church and community for the endless support and prayers.  They are grateful to Jimmy’s employer, Sac-N-Pac, and the health insurance his job provides that enabled them to afford the long-term care their son required.  And they hold a sacred place in their hearts for people they cannot name but whose loving generosity they feel every day, pulsing through the heart of their own beloved son.  Thank you, blood donors, from Kay, Jimmy, John, Francis, James, Elizabeth and Bridget. 

John McDonald’s face is familiar to drivers on I-35 in New Braunfels, where they see his smiling face with the message, “One Little Reason to Donate Blood.”  The billboard is near the New Braunfels Donor Room at 651 N. IH-35, Marketplace, Suite 830.  Won’t you consider rolling up your sleeve to help a child like John make the miraculous transition from illness to health?