Karly and Kelsey Koch suffer from a rare and deadly genetic disorder called Dock 8 Disease. After holding a bone marrow drive, the sisters have yet to find the stem cells needed to treat their disease – and may consider a cord blood transplant if their search continues to prove fruitless.

At 22-years-old, Kelsey is the oldest person alive with the disease. Only eleven people are known to have Dock 8, and 4 have already died.

“The problem is if you have it, you die pretty fast so it doesn’t get discovered”, said Kelsey, who shows physical signs of viral infection.

On November 9, 2009, 800 people joined the Be the Match bone marrow registry to help the two sisters find a match in order to provide stem cells to help treat their disease. Unfortunately, not one match was found and the organization held another event on May 14th in search of more donors.

The donor drive was coordinated by Karly and Kelsey’s grandmother, Florence Bunning. The process was simple: anyone who wished to become a donor for the sisters underwent a quick test, in which their mouths were swabbed. The sample is then sent to the Nation Marrow Donor Program for testing.

If a bone marrow donor is not found this time, they will begin searching for a cord blood donor. Although a cord blood transplant would be less definitive, it still presents a viable treatment option for Karly and Kelsey.