Saving Jehvan, saving others
Local teen fighting cancer brings 13,000 into donor registry in search for a match
Jehvan Crompton is a 14-year-old student at West High with a sweet smile and a quiet, unassuming demeanor. He says he’s had to grow up faster than most kids his age since he was diagnosed with cancer in 2019.
“He’s over it,” his mom Kimberly Crompton said. “He says, ‘I’m tired of the medication, I’m tired of getting poked.’”
But the latest leg on the journey has taken an interesting twist. Just in the last few weeks Jehvan has become the national face of a program that he hopes will finally cure him of chronic myeloid leukemia: the Be The Match Registry, which is part of the
National Bone Marrow Registry. He’s looking for a genetic match who can help him get a blood stem cell transplant.
Like 70 percent of patients who need a transplant, no one in his family is a full match. Be The Match tries to pair patients with potential donors in their registry. Right now there isn’t a match in their system. Learning that was a tough moment for the whole family.
“When we found out there was no one in the registry that matched Jehvan, it took us back to when he was first diagnosed with cancer,” Kimberly said.
The family worked with Be The Match to bring more people to the registry and increase
the chance Jehvan finds a donor.
They learned the odds are stacked against Black patients like Jehvan. Their odds of finding a match in the registry are 23 percent compared to white patients who are 77 percent likely to find one.
“This is not just for Jehvan,” Kimberly said. “We need to get the Black community to stand up and join the registry.”
Their advocacy efforts started relatively small compared to what would come later. An event in Bakersfield brought in 70 people to the registry.
But Jehvan shared his story on social media, and it attracted more notice. His story was picked up by national outlets, such as CNN. Within two weeks, 13,000 people had signed up to the registry just because of Jehvan. It’s estimated that those people who signed up could save 30 to 50 lives.
“Not only are we saving Jehvan, we’re helping to save others,” Kimberly said.
Everyone — certainly Jehvan — seems to be a bit shocked by the extent of the response.
“I find it embarrassing,” he laughed. “People are reaching out across the nation and checking in to see how I’m doing.”
But his mother said it’s given him a second wind of optimism in his fight against cancer. It’s also given the shy introvert some practice in front of cameras and on the radio.
“He’s been forced to come out of his shell,” Kimberly said.
Those advocacy efforts are continuing. Kimberly said education about the registry is key to helping more people join. At an upcoming event at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, Be The Match will be available to answer questions about how it works. It will also be a chance to join the registry, which takes a few minutes.
Those who register are asked to swab their cheek, according to Christine Mantilla, a spokeswoman for Be The Match. The information is only ever used for the registry. Most people in the registry are never called up — about one in 430 are — but those who are may not get the call for a decade.
Mantilla said the donation process is nothing like you might have seen in the movies. Most donors, like the one Jehvan is looking for, seek blood stem cells. That requires a non-surgical outpatient procedural that is similar to donating platelets or plasma. Those who are a match for someone who needs bone marrow will require a brief outpatient procedure at a hospital.
Be The Match covers health care expenses, compensation for work and travel expenses, including for a companion to travel with the donor.
“It really is so easy to save someone’s life,” Mantilla said.
Jehvan said he’s been feeling good lately. He attributes that to the latest cancer drug that he’s been taking, Iclusig. Some of the drugs he takes make him feel run-down or cold. But lately he’s been able to play outside and feel “regular.”
But Kimberly said he does need a transplant soon. If no one added to the registry is a match, the clock is ticking with Jehvan’s rapidly mutating cancer. The family plans to travel to City of Hope in April and attempt a procedure that allows them to go forward with a procedure using his parents’ blood stem cells, which are half-matches.
His mom said the pandemic in a way has made the life Jehvan lives seem fairly average. Wearing a mask in public and doing all your school work at home are the norm in 2021, not just something a teen with cancer has to do.
When he’s done with distance learning, Jehvan logs right back on to play video games with his siblings, along with cousins who live in other states.
And lately he’s been doing an interview or two a week. It was hard to tell his story at first but he’s become used to it. He also knows the work he’s doing isn’t just about him either.
“People are in desperate need of donors to cure cancers,” he said.