COLUMBIA, Miss. (WHLT) – A young boy in Columbia is in critical need of blood donations after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of blood cancer.

The family of four-year-old Jaxon “J.J.” Shepherd said he was recently diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

“He’s still not eating that very well. You know, if he eats half a banana in a full day, we’re happy about that. He’s not eating like a normal kid. He’s still having to build that appetite up. The chemo makes him sick. His stomach hurts all the time,” said April Shepherd, the boy’s aunt.

Shepherd spent his birthday and Thanksgiving at Children’s of Mississippi in Jackson undergoing experimental chemotherapy.

“He’ll be in the hospital like a month at a time and then get to go home for two or three days after each treatment session. They’ll do chemo the first week, and it’s a new chemo study that where they put the chemo in, and it’s supposed to stay in his body and work throughout the month,” explained his aunt.

Shepherd has to receive one to two liters of platelets each day. A blood drive for him will be held on Thursday, December 14 at Good News Brewing in Columbia from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

“We are only going to do whole blood that day because they can take the platelets out and separate it how they need to. We just need all the blood that we can,” his aunt said.

A second blood drive will be held on December 22 at Holy Smokes in Columbia from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. All blood types are welcome.

The Shepherd family set up a GoFundMe page to help with medical and travel expenses.