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Five-year-old donating bone marrow to younger sister with leukemia

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Perth County, Ont. -

Clayton Nicholson may not fully comprehend that he’s about to save his sister’s life -- he just knows she needs help -- and can help her by donating his bone marrow.

“There’s a 25 per cent chance he would be a perfect match for Claire. Luck was on our side and it turns out it worked out real well for us,” says Clayton and Claire’s mom, Mandy Nicholson.

Next week, two-year-old Claire will be heading to a Toronto hospital in order to receive a bone marrow transplant from her five-year-old brother.

It’s a procedure that will hopefully save her life -- a life that’s been spent mostly in hospital -- after the talkative toddler was diagnosed with leukemia days before her first birthday.

“She is going to go through some pretty intense chemo. They’re really going to knock down her bone marrow and make it stop producing cells on its own. Then, Clayton will come in and have a harvest done. They’ll extract his bone marrow and it will get transferred to Claire, kind of like a blood transfusion,” explains Mandy.

Then the family will wait, hope and pray that the bone marrow transplant works.

“Hopefully with any luck, no more leukemia,” says Mandy.

And that will warrant an even bigger parade than the one organized by the family's supporters for Clayton’s fifth birthday, earlier this week.

“He’s been great. Just puts out his arm to take blood, because it’s for his sister. He should just be sore for a couple of days after the procedure and then, well, it probably won’t slow him down for long,” says Mandy.

The Nicholson family heads to Toronto for the start of Claire’s intense chemo next week, with the bone marrow transplant from big brother, Clayton, scheduled for August 11.

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