10-year-old Logan McNarland Pays Visit to Mackinac Island Benefactor

Barry Bedour (left) with Logan and David McNarland.

Two years ago, the generosity of Mackinac Island astounded Barry BeDour, who, after being diagnosed with leukemia, desperately needed a bone-marrow transplant. In the spirit of community, Mackinac Islanders and residents of St. Ignace held fundraisers and collected donations to help pay for Mr. BeDour's bone-marrow drive, in which people are tested to see if they are a match for a transplant. The funds paid for the testing for people who could not otherwise afford the cost.

"People just came out of the woodwork," Mr. BeDour said of the generosity and caring of Islanders during his illness. "You find out how many people care about you. It is pretty amazing."

So much money was raised for the National Bone Marrow Donation Program for Mr. BeDour's testing program that the extra was sent on to help Logan McNarland, an 8-yearold boy from the Muskegon area, who also had leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant.

Barry and Betty BeDour had never met the boy they helped until Logan, now 10, visited Mackinac Island on July 11 with his father to meet and thank them for what they had done.

While Mr. BeDour is still taking medication, Logan has gone into remission and is doing well after his bout with cancer.

"Along the way, so many people helped him," said his father, David McNarland. "Little things can be big."

Mr. McNarland explained that as it turned out, the money that was sent to Logan wasn't needed after a match was found,

and so it was sent on to help another. The BeDours hope that the chain is still going.

"It's amazing how wonderful people are," Mr. BeDour said of the many donors who helped raise the money for his bone marrow drive. "They saved my life, and I don't even know who they are."