Our Story

PLEASE CONTINUE TO FOLLOW US HERE @ COTAforTeamBella.com FOR UPCOMING BONE MARROW DRIVES & FUNDRAISER EVENTS!! Are you Isabella’s life-saving potential perfect Bone Marrow match? 

Please join the national bone marrow registry, it’s simple!

1.) Go to the website: Join.BeTheMatch.Org/SaveIsabella or scan the QR Code 
2.) Go to the link in your email to complete registry 
3.) Receive your swab kit in the mail & swab your cheeks  
4.) Return your swab kit ASAP at NO Cost

MEET ISABELLA the daughter of Brenden & Heather Mahoney. 
Isabella loves tummy time, story time, eating and cat naps. 

She dreams that one day she will be healthy enough to leave her house to be able to explore the world without fear of germs and life-threatening infections.

Isabellawas born 8 weeks premature at Boston’s Children’s Hospital in Boston, MA on Sept 26, 2018 while her mother was home visiting with her father last year due to his upcoming heart surgery. Isabella spent her first 3 months of life hospitalized where she was diagnosed with an extremely rare immune deficiency requiring a Bone Marrow Transplant. Her diagnosis puts her at high risk of infection due to not having a functioning immune system. Isabella lives in Charleston, SC where she is desperately searching for a perfect 10/10 Bone Marrow Donor for transplant at MUSC Children’s Hospital in Charleston, SC.

Did you know that there has only been a handful of children ever to be diagnosed with Neutrophil Immunodeficiency Syndrome in the world. This immunodeficiency is a genetic Mutation on her RAC 2 gene.

There is almost no literature on her disease if you google it. Doctors know almost nothing about it. Only that it has been previously cured in other children with a Bone Marrow Transplant which is the ultimate cure to fix any and all severe immunodeficiencies.

A bone marrow transplant will completely erase her current weakened immune system with chemotherapy before introducing the healthy cells and blood type of her donor. Isabella will take over the blood type of her donor, they don’t have to match!!

We are praying for a miracle!!! For Isabella’s immune system to continue to rise all on its own to a healthy level to continuously postpone transplant. That she will be strong enough to be the first child in history to beat her disease and to give other sick children suffering from a genetic mutation on their RAC 2 gene a hope of other possible options to treat the symptoms verses  transplant if they can avoid getting continuously sick. So far isbella has not got sick!! Her Doctors will continue to monior her cell counts monthly & the function of her cells which was the ultimate cause for transplant every 4 months to see if they continue to rise & maintain themselves all on their own as she gets older. We never know what tomorrow will bring so we are desperate to find her perfect donor match!! She will be monitored closely by her transplant team for the rest of her life no matter what the final outcome unfolds and only time will give us answers. Ultimately a transplant is Isabella’s only cure which comes with many risks, our goal is to avoid transplant and treat the symptoms with forever bandaids to include different forms of  medications if the function of her cells normalize. We were originally told the function of her cells would not change however recent tests results have provenwhat we know about this disease is changing.

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults for their entire life. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Please help us reach our goal for $50,000 to help pay for transplant related expenses!! 

To every single person who has or will donate, share our story, help us sponsor bone marrow drives, help us fundraise and have prayed for our family, we cannot thank you enough for all your love and support. A total stranger will give our daughter the opportunity of a normal healthy life and for that we cannot even begin to thank you from the bottom of our hearts!! You have changed all our lives and you should feel so honored and blessed that you can give the gift of life not only for our baby but for any person young or old in need of transplant.

Ideal Donors are between the ages of 18-44 are FREE to register, over Age 45 is a $100 processing fee:

Thank you for your part in our journey!! 

Love Team Bella

Brenden, Heather and most importantly Isabella