A&M’s new coach is continuing the battle against rare blood disease in Texas.
Coach’s 13-year-old son Ethan battling rare blood disease
COLLEGE STATION — Like every other football-loving Texas A&M fan, Jimbo Fisher is counting down the days to kickoff at Kyle Field (a little more than 100).
Another countdown, too, owns Fisher’s rapt attention, one with an even greater sense of urgency for the new A&M coach, because its expiration means the end of a Gulf of Mexico-sized separation from his youngest son. “My little one is mad he’s not already over here,” Fisher said of 13-year-old Ethan.
Fisher’s oldest son, Trey, already has moved to College Station from Tallahassee, Fla., where Fisher was the head coach at Florida State from 2010-17. Trey, a quarterback, is enrolled at A&M Consolidated and will be a junior next year.
Ethan is finishing out his school year in Tallahassee and then joining his brother and father. By his delighted dad’s account, Ethan will soon after his arrival have a fishing rod in one hand, a gun in the other, and perhaps a football cradled between his elbow and ribs.
“He loves to hunt, fish, be outside and play ball,” Fisher said of the wide-open spaces Ethan soon plans to enjoy in and around Brazos County. “Ball, hunting and fishing — that would be the definition of Texas, wouldn’t it?”
Ethan’s competitiveness is at least on par with his father’s, based on the way the just-turned-teenager has battled the blood disease Fanconi anemia, which leads to bone marrow failure.
Charity relocating to Texas
The rare malady “prevents bone marrow from making enough new blood cells for the body to work normally,” according to the University of Minnesota’s Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transportation Center. Ethan makes at least one trip annually to the University of Minnesota, along with multiple visits annually in Florida (and soon to be Texas) to treat the disease. Fisher and his former wife, Candi, are in the process of shifting their Kidz1stFund, a charity the Fishers started following Ethan’s diagnosis in 2011, from Tallahassee to College Station.
“Getting that established over here is going to be critical,” Fisher said.
The fund has donated $5 million in the past six years to the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Children’s Hospital, and thanks to those funds, the university, for instance, bought a “Prodigy” machine that “helps discover whether it’s possible and safe to treat and prevent life-threatening viral infections in Fanconi anemia patients undergoing transplantation,” according to the Kidz1stFund website.
Impacts 1 in 130,000 in U.S.
The shift of Kidz1stFund to College Station will be complete this summer according to Kirstin Rayborn, the fund’s executive director who along with her family and Candi Fisher all are making the move to Brazos County.
“We’ll continue to fundraise nationally, and really, worldwide, and our office will be based in College Station,” Rayborn said.
Fanconi anemia impacts one of every 130,000 Americans, and symptoms range from heart problems to abnormalities of the limbs, according to Kidz1stFund.
“While no two cases of Fanconi anemia are the same, one fact continues to hold true — every person with (the disease) will … eventually require a bone marrow transplant in order for them to survive,” the Kidz1stFund website claims.
Twenty-three years ago, one in seven Fanconi anemia patients survived a donor bone marrow transplant. Now it’s six out of seven, according to Kidz1stFund. In addition, life expectancy for those with Fanconi anemia has been on the rise and currently is about 33 years.
“We’re the largest individual fundraiser for that disease in the world,” a proud Jimbo Fisher said of his family’s ongoing fight against Fanconi anemia.
As for Ethan, the handsome and lively youth keeps pressing on as a fine example of flourishing under adverse conditions, as his folks and extended family continue fighting the good fight.
“Ethan’s appointment in March went really well,” Rayborn said of the youngster’s most recent visit to Minnesota. “He’s a rock star. His resiliency is amazing.”
To donate to Kidz1stFund or to learn more about the disease and the Fisher family’s ongoing fight, visit kidz1stfund.com.