Adopted 13-year-old Ethiopian in U.S. found match for bone marrow transplant from his siblings in Ethiopis

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STRATHAM — It’s not easy for Behaylu Barry to sit and watch his friends play soccer from the bench.

“It’s fun, but it’s tough. I just want to grab the ball and start running,” Behaylu said Sunday as he watched a team from Seacoast United Soccer Club compete in a tournament in Epping.

Forced to take a break from soccer and basketball, Behaylu and his adoptive father, Aidan, stopped by the game to support the Seacoast players.

“It’s important for him to be with his peers and the Seacoast people really try to involve him on the bench,” Aidan said.

But while the 12-year-old Stratham boy cheered for the team, many more people are cheering for him these days.

Behaylu is awaiting a life-saving bone marrow transplant and his community is pulling together like it always does in times of need.

Behaylu, who celebrates his 13th birthday on Friday, will be the guest of honor at a seventh-grade birthday party fund-raiser to be held on March 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Cooperative Middle School in Stratham.

Only those in good health are invited to attend because of Behaylu’s compromised immune system after he was diagnosed with a rare disease known as aplastic anemia in February.

The only hope for a cure is a bone marrow transplant that could happen within the next few weeks.

After the diagnosis was made, the Barrys immediately reached out to Behaylu’s birth family in Ethiopia to see if one of his siblings was a match for a transplant. It turns out a younger sister and an older brother were matches and both will come to the United States as soon as their passports and visas are in hand.

The siblings are applying for their passports, and once they’re issued, it should take less than two weeks to get the visas, said Aidan Barry, who, with his wife, Midori, adopted Behaylu when he was 6-years-old.

A seventh-grader at the Cooperative Middle School in Stratham, Behaylu said he’s looking forward to the birthday party fund-raiser this weekend.

“It was supposed to be a surprise party but people put fliers everywhere,” he said with a smile.

Stratham parent Julie McGuinness, whose twin boys, Sean and Matt, have known Behaylu since first-grade, organized the big birthday bash.

“They’ve grown up with him and they’ve seen how far he’s come,” she said.

McGuinness brainstormed several ideas and decided to pull off the birthday party and dance, which will feature music, food, celebratory cupcakes and lots of well wishes.

“I thought that if a group of moms came together and thought of some fund-raisers then we could support the family financially for getting the siblings here and helping with the expenses while they’re staying here and also the parents are going to have to go to Boston for several months,” McGuinness said.

Matt, Sean and other friends and classmates have also stepped up to the plate to make the birthday event special.

“We have him over a lot and we try to make him as happy as possible so he doesn’t really have to think about what’s going on,” Sean said.

Donations of $10 per person and additional tax-deductible monetary contributions will be accepted at the event. The donations will be given to Annie’s Angels, a local nonprofit that’s helping the Barry family.

Donations for Behaylu can also be made at www.anniesangels.net, where a “Spirit of Behaylu” page has been created.

Other events are also being planned, including a blood drive on April 23 from 12 to 5 p.m. at the Stratham Community Church.

The Barrys have been touched by the outpouring of support.

“The support from this community has been amazing. They’ve really taken over a lot of the things we would normally do. They bring us meals and they pick up Behaylu and make sure he has companionship. It’s really allowed us to focus on his health and getting him healthy, which is an amazing relief,” Aidan Barry said.