A young woman based in Louisiana saved the life of a teenage boy after donating her bone marrow to him.
In 2013, Alika Jones signed up for the Be The Match bone marrow registry during a homecoming drive.
According to its website, “Be The Match® is a community of donors, volunteers, health care professionals and researchers who deliver cures by helping patients get the life-saving marrow transplant they need.”
Four years later, Jones told “Good Morning America” she finally got a call she was a match for a 14-year-old boy named Josiah Knight, “who was recently diagnosed with leukemia, and he needed a donor.”
“I just wanted to help someone, if I could, not have to worry about their child,” she added.
Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Knight’s mother, Keesha Wilson, tearfully explained that she asked God to help them overcome this difficult diagnosis.
“Without her, my son wouldn't be here. I'm so grateful.”
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 20, 2023
A mom and her family traveled from California to Louisiana to meet the woman who saved her son's life with a bone marrow donation.@laraspencer@robinroberts pic.twitter.com/pcUrTA3ncE
“I started praying to God and was just like protect my son. Give me the strength,” she shared.
Jones and Knight were “a perfect match,” according to his mother, and in 2017, he underwent a successful bone marrow transplant.
“His body was healed. And he may not have to say his own words, but if you see his smile, you know, he’s very thankful and grateful,” Wilson said of her son, who also has Down syndrome.
Jones shared that next to being a mother herself, this was one of the greatest things she’s ever done in her life – “to be able to help someone.”
After traveling from California to Louisiana, Wilson finally got to meet Jones. She got emotional as she described what the experience was like.
“I was just so happy and so honored to meet her and to just say ‘Thank you, Alika,’ because without her, my son wouldn’t be here. So i’m so grateful,” she said.
