‘You’re a real-life superhero’: Young Dallas brothers share life-saving gift on Valentine’s Day

DALLAS — A couple of boys are proving how their brotherly bond can inspire the type of love that can change a life.

Preston Pipkins, 13, and his 7-year-old brother, Cameron, spent Valentine’s Day in surgery at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas on Valentine’s Day. Preston needed a bone marrow transplant. His little brother was his donor.

“You’re giving bone marrow from your body to my body because my bone marrow is messed up. It has cancer, right? Yours doesn’t,” Preston is seen discussing in a video with Cameron, which his mom posted on social media.

The teen was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in September 2022. Rounds of chemotherapy proved to be tough on the boy. It’s also been hard on his family.

“Challenging is not even the correct word for it,” the boys’ mother Rachael Pipkins explained.

Family members said Preston is a strong boy. However, little Cameron’s commitment to being his big brother’s bone marrow donor is speaking volumes.

“You saved me,” Preston told his brother while sitting on the hospital bed.

Preston and Cameron are typical brothers. They play together. They may fight, at times. Cameron said he just wants his brother to get better.

“I don’t like him being in the hospital. And he has to take medicine every day,” Cameron shared.

Finding a bone marrow donor wasn’t easy.

“We looked on the registry and Preston did not have a viable match. So, Cameron is his only option,” Rachael Pipkins said.

The boys prepared for a life-saving option that brought them closer.

“You’re a real-life superhero,” Preston told Cameron.

The boys successfully completed bone marrow transplant surgery on Valentine’s Day.

So, on a day when many people are thinking about love, the boys showed their love for one another in a major way.

Cameron also proved all superheroes don’t wear capes.

Close friends, family, and community members have been rallying around the Pipkins family, since learning about Preston’s illness. 

Supporters have set up a website to help the family with its immediate needs during Preston’s treatment and recovery.