Ever since he can remember, 14-year-old Landon Kennedy has been fighting against Crohn’s disease.
Diagnosed at 18 months and given a colostomy bag at 3 years old, Landon has been through multiple scopes, procedures and surgeries to remove intestines and even received a bone marrow transplant, as the disease causes inflammation of the digestive tract, leading to severe diarrhea, fatigue, malnutrition and a host of other symptoms. On top of that, a mutation called IL-10 provides even more complications, affecting his body’s response to pathogens.
With Landon’s body struggling to retain iron, vitamin B12 and vitamin D, he has required multiple blood transfusions over the course of his life, which makes the fact that Blood Donor Day in St. Joseph on Wednesday, Aug. 8, is actually dedicated to him.
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