It's been four years since Carol and B.J. Diamond's infant daughter, Cameron, underwent a bone marrow transplant - a risky, complicated medical procedure - to beat the leukemia that was threatening her life.
Since then, the Crofton couple have watched Cameron grow into a healthy toddler - a little girl who, with her bright smile and dimpled cheeks, could easily allow her parents to forget about the deadly disease she was born with.
Instead, the Diamonds have vowed never to forget it.
Tomorrow, they are joining more than a dozen of their Crofton neighbors, along with a team from Johns Hopkins Hospital, to hold a bone marrow donor recruitment drive at Crofton Woods Elementary School.
Called the "Team Ryan" drive, the event will honor 10-year-old Ryan Tomoff, a fourth-grader at Crofton Woods who has been battling leukemia for eight years and recently underwent a bone marrow transplant.
"When our daughter was sick we had so much community support it was incredible," Carol Diamond said. "When she started to get better, we thought there was no way we could just say thanks and move on with our lives."
According to the National Bone Marrow Donor Program, only 30 percent of patients in need of a bone marrow transplant - a last-resort procedure used to treat aggressive cancers and rare blood diseases - find a donor match among their family members. The remaining 70 percent must search for a donor in the program's national registry.
The program estimates that approximately 3,000 people nationwide are unable to undergo transplants because they can't find a matching, willing donor.
Carol Diamond said she experienced the fear of not finding a match when Cameron, at 7 weeks old, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Days later, doctors at Anne Arundel Medical Center told the Diamonds that their baby's survival would depend on a bone marrow transplant. When tests showed that no one in the family matched Cameron, they turned to the national registry. Fortunately, they found a man who matched in Athens, Ga.
"His marrow saved our daughter's life," Carol Diamond said. "That's why we have to do this drive."
The Johns Hopkins team will take blood samples at the "Team Ryan" event, and hand out the paperwork required to join the registry.
Tomorrow, Ryan Tomoff will mark the 10th day since he received a transplant at Duke University Hospital in Durham. N.C.
By phone from the hospital, Tomoff's mother, Terry, said her family has been inspired by the efforts of their community.
"It's just awesome," she said. "By encouraging people to put themselves on the donor list, they can help someone like Ryan, or Cameron, or the 15 other kids on this hospital floor."
Bone marrow drive
What: Healthy people ages 18 to 61 may become donors by giving a blood sample and filling out paperwork.
When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow.
Where: Crofton Woods Elementary School, 1750 Urby Drive, Crofton.
To learn more about the drive, go to www.croftontownclub.com.
To locate another donor site, call 800-MARROW-2 or go to www.marrow.org.
