Carmani Boozer was born in May 2006 with sickle cell disease, a blood disorder that disproportionately affects African Americans and can be lethal. At 21 months old, he received a blood stem cell transplant using cord blood from his twin brothers, Cameron and Cayden, and has lived a completely healthy life ever since. Nearly two decades later, all three brothers are working to make sure other families facing the same odds have a fighting chance.
A Decision Made Before the Twins Were Born
The story traces back to a choice Carlos and CeCe Boozer made more than 15 years ago, well before Cameron and Cayden existed. According to a release from ESPN Press Room, the couple opted to conceive using IVF specifically so the resulting embryos could be screened free of sickle cell disease while also serving as potential bone marrow matches for Carmani. That gamble paid off when Cameron and Cayden were born, and their cord blood became the transplant that changed their older brother's life, as reported by USA Today.
Today, Carmani is 20 and taking classes at Florida International University in Miami after playing baseball as a pitcher, per the same account. His brothers, meanwhile, have gone on to prominent basketball careers of their own — Cayden is a starting guard in his sophomore season for the No. 2 ranked Duke Blue Devils, while Cameron was selected No. 3 overall in the NBA Draft out of Duke and is now a rookie with the Memphis Grizzlies, recently recording his first NBA triple-double on October 29 and playing against the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.
Taking the Cause to Hospitals
The brothers have translated their family's experience into direct outreach this year. In September, before his rookie NBA season began, Cameron visited transplant recipients and blood stem cell donors at Baptist Cancer Center in Memphis, the outlet notes. Just before Halloween, Cayden made a similar trip, visiting blood stem cell transplant patients and donors at Duke University Hospital. Both twins are also planning to bring a patient to one of their basketball games this season, according to the same report.
The visits are tied to a formal partnership announced June 18 between the Boozer brothers and NMDP, the nonprofit that operates the nation's blood stem cell donor registry. The organization said it is partnering with Cameron, Cayden and Carmani Boozer to help more patients with blood cancers and disorders get the life-saving transplants they need. Through the partnership, the brothers are encouraging young adults between 18 and 35 to join the NMDP Registry.
Why Diversity on the Registry Matters
The push for more diverse registrants isn't just a feel-good slogan — it reflects a documented gap in match odds. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found the likelihood of locating an optimal HLA-matched adult donor ranged from 75% among whites of European descent down to just 16% among blacks of South or Central American descent. A more recent NMDP modeling analysis from 2022 found Black and African American patients had only a 29% chance of finding an available 8/8 matched donor, though allowing for less precise matches raised modeled donor availability to more than 99% across every group examined.
NMDP has acknowledged the shortfall directly, saying its registry isn't diverse enough to meet the needs of everyone who needs a transplant. The organization has also said that 75 percent of patients do not have a fully matched donor in their own family and must search for an unrelated match — a reality the Boozer family lived through before their own IVF decision closed that gap for Carmani. Sickle cell disease itself affects about 100,000 people in the United States, with more than 90% identifying as non-Hispanic Black or African American and an estimated 3% to 9% as Hispanic or Latino, according to the CDC.
A Family Still Bound Across Three Cities
Despite living in different cities and pursuing separate careers, the brothers say they remain close. Cayden has described staying connected with his siblings through a brothers-only group chat, texts and video calls, even as he settles into life at Duke with a five-month-old puppy named Louie as his new roommate. He has also said he never seriously considered transferring away from Duke, wanting to stay put as he builds his college career.
The family's story first reached a wide audience through a 2008 ESPN E60 documentary that the Boozers watched together, chronicling the decision their parents made and the transplant that followed. Now, nearly two decades after that gamble succeeded, Carmani and his family say they want to help increase diverse representation on the donor registry so more patients facing long odds can find a match of their own.
