Staff reports

Barbecue plates are being sold to raise money to help a 6-year-old Albany boy who is battling a severe bleeding disorder.

Church Whiting was diagnosed about two years ago with severe chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), although he was been symptomatic for about three years.

ITP is extremely rare, especially among young children. In ITP, the blood doesn’t clot as it should due to a low number of platelets, which are made in bone marrow along with other kinds of cells. Platelets stick together to seal small cuts or breaks on blood vessel walls and stop bleeding. Without enough platelets, bleeding can occur inside the body (internal bleeding) or underneath or from the skin (external bleeding).

Church has been treated in Columbus and Atlanta, where his physicians referred to him to a physician at the National Health Institute in Washington, D.C. There, he was referred to world-renowned physician Dr. James Bussel at New York Hospital/Weill Cornell School of Medicine. Funds are needed to defray the family’s travel and lodging expenses for Church’s New York visits and treatments.

Today is the last day to pre-order barbecue plates, which are on sale for $7.50 and will be ready for pickup Saturday, July 23. For tickets or information, call Church’s mother, Destiny Cook, at 894-6081; father, Jay Whiting, at 869-9666; or stepmother, Tori Whiting at 347-4284.

Donations to a trust account established for Church can be made to DOCO Regional Federal Credit Union, 107 N. Westover Blvd., Albany GA 31707 (Hilton Church Whiting account #81582).