‘He’s amazingly strong’: 11-year-old fights same rare blood disorder his older brother died from

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — A Goodyear family is counting their blessings after their 11-year-old son received a potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant. It came after being diagnosed with a rare blood disorder– the same disorder his older brother died from.

“He’s strong, he’s amazingly strong,” Kimberlee Anderson said.

Kimberlee, William’s mother, said her son is a fighter.

“So, last year we noticed William had some red spots on his eyes and I looked and noticed he had more bruises than normal for a child his age,” she said. 

Doctors said William had Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP), a rare blood disorder that prevents blood from clotting. William’s body resisted treatment, so his medical team took it a step further.

“They did the genetic testing, and it came back with RASGRP1, which is a marker for Epstein Bar, B-Cell Lymphoma,” she said. “Our doctor told us there were only ten other cases ever of RASGRP1 that had been diagnosed.” 

“He’s risen to every challenge that’s been placed in front of him,” his dad, Shawn Anderson, said.

The news was tough, but it wasn’t entirely surprising. That’s because William’s older brother, Alexander, also had ITP and died from B-Cell Lymphoma seven years earlier.

“It’s the worst thing to see your kid suffer,” Shawn said. “And to also not have answers, and with our oldest we didn’t have answers. It was basically 19 days from when he was admitted to the hospital, diagnosed and when he passed away. It was supposed to be treatable and then it just escalated and he was gone.”

Knowing early on that William had a high chance of developing cancer, doctors said a bone marrow transplant could be life-saving.

“To simplify it, it’s basically you get the chemo to wipe out your faulty immune system,” Shawn said. “Then, you get donor cells from a healthy matching transplant. Essentially it’s administered very similar to a blood transfusion and then they get a bit of chemo after to prevent the old cells from growing back and killing it off.”

He’s finished the process, but it wasn’t easy.

“Hair loss, mucositis which are sores from mouth to bottom, nauseous- he can’t eat,” Kimberlee said.

“He’s still pretty miserable,” Shawn said. “But he’s doing much better than I would be if I was the patient.”

William now awaits more results, but doctors believe his prognosis to be good. As his fight continues, William knows he’s not doing it alone. Not only is his family by his side, but his brother, Alexander, too.

“He’s our guardian angel,” Kimberlee said. “He’s been with us every step of the way just being that support that we need and helping us through the hard times.”

There are only about ten other cases of RASGRP1 to ever be diagnosed. If you’d like to read more about Williams story or to help the family with medical expenses, click here.

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