WASILLA — This week 4-year-old Connor Dunham reaches a landmark — he’s going to preschool.

It is a day made possible by a 34-year-old woman from Europe who donated bone marrow.

For his parents, Alicia and Steve Dunham of Wasilla, Wednesday’s trip to preschool is a long way, in many respects, from the 364 days spent in a Seattle hospital with 2-year-old Connor after he was diagnosed with ALL, a deadly form of leukemia. “He’s a normal 4-year-old boy,” Alicia Dunham said. “He is active and ornery and amazing all the time.”

The Dunhams — Steve, Alicia, Connor and 2 1/2-year-old Carson — will be part of the Light the Night Walk to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at Iditapark 7 p.m. Friday. This is the second year “Connor’s Crew” will include the member of honor, Connor, who was the featured face of last year’s Light the Night event.

In 2006, at the fourth local walk, Steve Dunham’s friends made up Connor’s Crew while Connor was treated for the potentially fatal disease in Seattle.

Connor had just turned 2 when he couldn’t shake a cold and, more disturbingly, couldn’t put pressure on his left leg. It wasn’t until after he’d had a spinal tap for meningitis that the Dunhams got the diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Ninety-five percent of the toddler’s white blood cells were leukemia cells.

When Connor didn’t respond sufficiently to chemotherapy for doctors to be confident he’d beat the disease, the Dunhams opted for a bone marrow, or stem cell, transplant.

The Dunhams weren’t good matches, and the U.S. bone marrow registry turned up no one, so the medical staff checked the European registry and found a donor.

Although her cells eventually battled with Connor’s in what is called GVH (graft verses host) disease, requiring Connor to take 15 medicines each day, later this month Connor will celebrate the two-year anniversary of the transplant and he can give up the last of those immune suppressers and accompanying medicines.

“We’ll be down to one pill a day,” Alicia Dunham said.

It’s just another one of those moments to celebrate for the Dunhams, who now have two healthy sons, thanks to the advances in science aided by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Friday’s Light the Night Walk promotes those advances and helps people understand the importance of donating blood and signing up for the bone marrow registry. The walk is celebrating its 10th anniversary nationally.

Alicia Dunham said she resolved to become involved after Kelly Marre and the local L&LS provided support to her family during Connor’s treatment.

“I really felt I needed to be involved,” Dunham said. “I can do something to make another family make this a little easier.”

Dunham said Connor has benefited from the research and advances that L&LS has helped fund in the last 10 years. Even five years ago, Connor’s prognosis might not be as rosy. As it is, once he hit the one-year survivor’s mark, he has a 95 to 100 percent chance of survival against the disease.

Dunham encourages people to take the steps that could save a life like Connor’s.

By donating blood or giving a cheek swab to be part of the donor registry, everyday people can be part of a network that saves lives.

“It’s such a small step to save someone’s life,” she said.

Walk participants also help by raising critical funds. As of Monday night, there were seven teams listed for Wasilla’s walk. More are welcome and donations are accepted.

To learn more about Connor, visit his Web site at www.connordunham.com.

To learn more about the Light the Night Walk, visit www.lightthenight.org and follow links to Alaska’s information.