Eight-year-old Mitchell Ganeku can't play baseball or do anything ordinary like go to school or have friends sleep over.

On July 17 the Manoa Elementary School third-grader was playing a game in the Manoa Youth Baseball League when his dad and coach, Nelson Ganeku, said he noticed that the white part of his son's eyes had turned yellow.

Two days later, tests revealed his white blood cell count was extremely low, Nelson Ganeku said. The underlying cause was aplastic anemia, a rare and serious condition that occurs when the body stops producing enough new blood cells, he said.

“;He cannot attend school,”; he said. “;If he gets any cut, we're afraid of internal bleeding or infection. He misses his friends. He can't play in sports, and because of his medications, he has to keep out of the sun. He has an IV in his chest that is a direct line to his heart.”;

Mother Norma Ganeku said, “;Everything came to a halt. We were so devastated that this happened to him. Our whole lives were scheduled around him.”;

After months of hospitalization and blood transfusions, Mitchell's condition is stable, but his blood count is still low. And he is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant.

His siblings and all their relatives were tested, “;but we were so devastated that we had no matches,”; Norma Ganeku said.

The Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry has scheduled several drives beginning Friday.

Mitchell is of Okinawan and Filipino ancestry, but all donors are welcome to be tested. Donors must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and in good health. For more information, call 547-6154 or visit marrow.org.