(CNN) -- Only a year after he was diagnosed with leukemia, 12-year-old Pat Pedraja began a one-kid mission to change the makeup of the nation's bone marrow registry.
He persuaded his family to get a bus and drive cross-country to encourage minorities like himself to become marrow donors.
Even though he doesn't need a marrow transplant for his cancer treatment, he says he is all too aware that many people die without finding a match. And of the 6 million donors on the national marrow registry, only 27 percent are minorities.
"You're most likely to find a match within your own ethnicity," Pedraja said. "I'm half Hispanic. I decided to change [the registry] because it could affect me, too."
Boy battling leukemia launches mission to save lives - CNN.com
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