# @americanredcross on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DUZGjChAcOk
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/72587845-americanredcross-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/f93fb9f83b.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-02-05T22:00:53.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** American Red Cross (@americanredcross) — https://gondola.cc/americanredcross

## Caption

Trayson was just 10 days old when he was diagnosed with sickle cell disease. It quickly began shaping his childhood. At a year old, RSV landed him in the hospital. Months later, he experienced his first severe pain crisis.

“It hit in the middle of the night,” said his mother, Amy. “He was crying and pointing at his arm, yelling ‘Bonk, bonk, bonk.’ That was his word for pain.”

As Trayson grew, the complications multiplied. By age 5, he had been airlifted out of Montana three times for specialized care in Colorado. He endured four episodes of acute chest syndrome — two of which nearly took his life.

Then, an ultrasound revealed he was at high risk for stroke. By the time he started kindergarten, doctors warned he might not live into his 20s without drastic intervention. His family made the decision to pursue a bone marrow transplant, a cure for sickle cell disease that came with extreme risk.

“At the time, it was only 50 percent survival,” Amy said. “It was like a year in the making by the time I could really fathom signing my name on the transplant paperwork.”

Finding a donor match is difficult for many patients, but in 2015, hope arrived. A 24-year-old man matched Trayson on 12 out of 13 genetic markers.

The transplant process was brutal. Chemotherapy wiped out his immune system. He lived in isolation for months. And throughout it all, blood and platelet transfusions sustained him.

Sometimes the transfusions came once a month, sometimes every week, and during the transplant process, nearly every other day. Each donation brought Trayson strength, stability, and a fighting chance.

“Blood donors are definitely amazing people,” he said. “I would love them to know that they are making a difference because they are saving lives like my own.”

Ten years post-transplant, Trayson is now cured of sickle cell disease. He still lives with the long-term effects of chemotherapy, but the daily pain and hospital visits are behind him. His future — once shadowed by uncertainty — now stretches wide open. #TeamUp4SickleCell

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teamup4sicklecell

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