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Growing Up After Cancer: After A Transplant, Brothers Form An Unbreakable Bond

Mark Birnbaum
/
KERA News Special Contributor
Jude Cobler, left, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. His brother, Joshua, provided his bone marrow.

Jude Cobler’s bone marrow transplant changed him physically, by altering his blood type. And emotionally, too, by creating an unbreakable bond with his brother, who helped save his life. For Jude and other cancer patients, a bone marrow transplant is really just the beginning.

Jude, a Plano kid, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Each year, about 2,500 kids are diagnosed with this type of leukemia.

When Jude's chemotherapy didn’t work, his odds of survival dropped drastically. His family searched for a bone marrow transplant match – they found one in his brother, Joshua.

Jude is the subject of a new KERA Breakthroughs series called Growing Up After Cancer.

For the past couple of weeks, we've taken you through Jude's journey -- from his cancer diagnosis and to his recovery. The third installment airs Wednesday on KERA 90.1 FM. The series wraps up next week.

Explore KERA's digital project here -- there are stories and radio pieces, as well as videos and photos of the Cobler family. And there are preview videos of Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, a documentary that concludes Wednesday night on KERA-TV.

Also, meet North Texans who have survived childhood cancer – people like Jocelyne Garcia. She was diagnosed with a type of blood cancer called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, or ALL, when she was 12. She finished chemotherapy at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas in 2009 and has been cancer-free ever since. But the disease nearly derailed her hopes of becoming an artist.

Watch her story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhyXP0fQwG0

Lauren Silverman was the Health, Science & Technology reporter/blogger at KERA News. She was also the primary backup host for KERA’s Think and the statewide newsmagazine  Texas Standard. In 2016, Lauren was recognized as Texas Health Journalist of the Year by the Texas Medical Association. She was part of the Peabody Award-winning team that covered Ebola for NPR in 2014. She also hosted "Surviving Ebola," a special that won Best Long Documentary honors from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. (PRNDI). And she's won a number of regional awards, including an honorable mention for Edward R. Murrow award (for her project “The Broken Hip”), as well as the Texas Veterans Commission’s Excellence in Media Awards in the radio category.