Care About Club shows that a little bit of caring goes a long way

FREDERICTON -

The Care About Club started with two families with two kids each, four to eight years old, who bubbled, and even homeschooled, together during the pandemic.

It got them thinking about how to help others and this time their project hit close to home.

"My mom has cancer so we know how it feels so we want to help other people who have cancer," said Sullivan Dowling.

"Christina experienced a relapse of leukemia about three weeks ago, and we knew this time she would need a stem cell transplant," said Becca Wurm, Care About Club members Breza and Sabina Stastny's mother.

So the Care About Club made a video to raise awareness of the need for bone marrow donations.

"The kids and I talked about that they're too young and I'm too old and so we need to raise awareness about who can donate and how life saving it is when someone takes that opportunity," Wurm said.

Donations for bone marrow donations can only come from healthy 17 to 35 year-olds.

"It's a good way to stop cancer," Sullivan Dowling said.

The Care About Club are hoping to drive more people to donate to help people with cancer all over the world find matches for bone marrow donation.

"It's certainly not been my idea, it's been through their conversations with Becca, Christina's best friend that they came up with an idea for drive for bone marrow eligible donors," said Ben Dowling, whose wife Christina has leukemia and is Sullivan and Viola's father.

"That's why we're doing donations and we really want to do stuff for our mom," Viola Dowling said.

A big part of the drive is encouraging people of all ethnicities to donate to increase the diversity of bone marrow availability.

"We just really want to help that cause because as the kids say we know how life saving for my best friend, their mom and we want other people to have that chance," Wurm said.