Caring Like Nicholas Foundation Kick Off

Nicholas McClary was a caring and kind teenage who lost his battle with cancer November 2018 because he was unable to find a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant.  A foundation is being created to honor him with the mission of educating people through the production of viral videos and social media about the need to register to be a bone marrow donor. 

Most people don't understand what a bone marrow transplant really is or how easy it is to be a donor.  Unlike other organ transplants the donor does not give up anything that will not grow back, it is a safe and easy for the donor and only involves a half day of their time.  Its easy to be a real hero to save the life of someone.

Only 2% of the population is even registered to be bone marrow donors.  Unlike blood which is pretty easy to find matches, bone marrow donation requires matching 10 different markers.  Race and regional background plays a very important role so we need people from all walks of life and from all parts of the world.  At any moment there are approximately 7,000 people in the United States alone who are looking for a bone marrow donor.  Because a lot of the diseases that require a bone marrow donor affect children, a high number of those looking are kids just like Nicholas. 

Nicholas was a healthy, bright, and caring teenager who woke up one morning with a pain in his neck.  When it didn't go away, the doctors discovered that he had a tumor growing in his neck.  He was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma,  a rare and very aggressive bone cancer which affects children and teens.   After going through intense chemo and radiation for a year he was pronounced clean from the Ewing's Sarcoma.  A few weeks later a blood test revealed that he was developing a leukemia that would require an immediate bone marrow transplant.  Tests showed that no one in his family was a good match.  A national and international search began for a match.  Unfortunately he was not one of the lucky ones to find a match.  As a last effort doctors used a haploid donor, or a parent who is by nature a 50% match.  This put the recipient at great risk of a complication known as GVHD or Graft Vs. Host Disease that in the end took Nicholas's life.  

You may not be able to cure cancer, but together we all can increase the odds of survival for lots of other patients like Nicholas who are searching for a bone marrow match.    We need your help to get the message out. 


What the Caring Like Nicholas Foundation is going to do:

1. Team up with celebrities and groups to produce viral videos with the message that get across the importance of being registered to be a potential bone marrow donor.

2. Create national and international information campaigns to get this message across.

3. Work with other foundations and registry organizations to setup bone marrow drives.

Why the McClary Family is doing this:

After Nicholas passed away, his older brother Andy held a very successful bone marrow drive in his brothers honor.  He and his father produced a video for the drive that was shown on campus.  It was while working at this bone marrow drive that his father realized how few people even understood what being a donor meant.  People had the miss-perception that bones were being taken from their body by a dangerous surgery like a lung donation or other organ donation.  This is when the idea for a foundation to educate people took root.

Prior to Nicholas being diagnosed with cancer, Andrew L. McClary (his father) was a television producer and on screen host for a locally produced television show called Car Show TV.  Prior to that Mr. McClary worked as a Creative Director for a nationally televised television show which aired on a major networks.   He wants to use his  talent for producing both television and marketing materials to make a change for other children and families who are going through what his son went through.  Using both his talent, experience, and contacts within the industry he believes he can make a difference.

Please donate today so we can start making a difference.

The video produced by the father and son for the university bone marrow drive.


The McClary Family producing a segment for the show at a car show for the Make-A-Wish foundation prior to Nicholas's diagnosis.

Nicholas and his mother in Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital being visited by the 501st Legion

Andrew McClary (Nicholas father) interviewing 9 year old Jordan at Holtz Children's Hospital in the PSA being produced with the 501st Legion of which he is now a member.  Jordan is a bone marrow recipient whose donor was found in Germany through the registration.


Andrew interviews a mother whose daughter, Trinity received a bone marrow transplant to fight sickle cell anemia, another disease which is deadly without a bone marrow transplant.  The mother was so grateful that some stranger had signed up and was willing to giver her daughter a chance at life.
A young boy meets with the 501s Legion while producing the first PSA
video.  He just received a bone marrow transplant.