Sherrill Police Chief Goes Above And Beyond For Local Boy

A local boy who suffers from a rare condition got a special gift from Sherrill Police Chief Rob Drake.

Landen Smith suffers from a rare condition called XIAP deficiency, and has been traveling back and forth to Cincinnati for treatments. Throughout that time Landen has grown into a Cincinnati Reds superfan.

Landen has been in Cincinnati since September 21(where he'll stay for a month), and since he loves the Reds so much now, Chief Drake took it upon himself to reach out to the Reds organization to see of they could do something special for the young fan.

The Reds quickly responded and made Landen's day with a trip to the ballpark on September 24, complete with a goodie bag full of Reds merchandise.

Landen's Mother Rebecca says the doctors still don’t know too much about XIAP deficiency, “It was only discovered 10 years ago and there’s only about 200 cases diagnosed in the world. He’s the very first case they’ve seen here, so everybody is learning through Landen.”

The only cure for Landen is a bone marrow transplant, but XIAP is the most difficult immunodeficiency to transplant successfully. He’s been on the bone marrow registry for 2 years and they still don’t have a match. But a new drug may change that. “They’ve created a brand new drug trial. We’re just waiting for Landen to get sick because that’s the only way he’ll qualify for the trial.”

While the family waits, Rebecca says it’s the love from family and friends that gets them through. “I can’t say enough about the community and how much support we’ve been given.”

You can see that community love and support through acts of kindness like chief Rob Drake's.