The transplant has been under consideration for about a year but earlier this month Trumpf, who suffers from a rare blood malady known as Thrombocytopenia, a type of Myelodysplastic Syndrome that is also called smoldering leukemia, learned his blood platelet level has been dropping precipitously in recent months.

He and his wife Debbie flew to Washington on Sunday, months earlier than originally anticipated, to check into the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance at the University of Washington.

"This is it, we're out of options," Prachthauser said Tuesday. "We all knew it was coming, but none of us thought it would be this soon."

Thrombocytopenia is a pre-cancerous condition in which the bone marrow slowly stops making blood cells and platelets.

The only potential cure is a bone marrow transplant. Even then, the chances of survival are 60 percent, Trumpf said last November. Without a transplant, doctors have given Trumpf five to 10 years to live.

Trumpf will undergo intense chemotherapy to wipe out his immune system on Sept. 5, 25 years to the date he began work as a Morristown firefighter.

Within a matter of days, he will receive the bone marrow to rebuild his red and white blood cells and platelets.

Earlier this month, Trumpf said he thought he would have at least until September before he would undergo the transplant.

In early August, Trumpf was forced to take sick leave from the fire department because his doctors feared that his weakened immune system would be unable to fight infection. Trumpf said he had planned to work at least until January.

Members of the Morristown Fire Department are raising $275,000 to pay for Trumpf's transplant, transportation and housing in Seattle. The Trumpfs must stay there at least four months, Prachthauser said.

Trumpf, 53, lives on Kennedy Road in Morris Plains. A little more than a year ago he realized something was wrong.

He found he easily became lightheaded, often for no apparent reason. Trips to the doctor were inconclusive but a look at his blood revealed something disturbing.

"My doctor told me she was concerned about my platelet level and sent me to a specialist," said Trumpf.

Trumpf's platelets, the cells in the blood that cause clotting, were at a count of about 70,000. The normal platelet count is anywhere from 150,000 to 450,000, he said.

The specialist ran some tests and discovered Trumpf is suffering from a potentially fatal blood disease called Myelodysplastic Syndrome.

Trumpf's family and friends, with the help of the HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigens) Registry Foundation and the Leukemia Society hosted several marrow testing session and blood drives but without much local luck. However, the HLA has an international database and it was through it that a potential donor was found in Germany.

According to Trumpf, nearly 30 percent of the patients in need will find a matched donor within their immediate family. However, the other 70 percent must search for an unrelated donor, a stranger that could help save his or her life.

Trumpf falls into that category because he is adopted. It turns out his children - he has three in all, April, 25, Tracy, 23, and Bill, 19, and four grandchildren - are of no help when it comes to their own bone marrow.

"Actually, a person's own children offer less of a chance of a match than a total stranger," Trumpf noted. "A child of yours will only have half the genes needed."

Trumpf is a 25-year veteran of the Morristown Fire Bureau's Uniform Division, about to begin his 25th year. Before that he was a volunteer for the Whippany Fire Department for almost 10 years. He has been married to Debbie Pearson Trumpf for 33 years.

Trumpf met his wife while they were youngsters living in Whippany. He is a member of the last graduating class of Hanover Park High School, 1968, that enrolled students from Hanover Township. Whippany Park High School opened the following year in Whippany and Debbie Trumpf became part of the new school's first graduating class.

Trumpf's parents still live in Whippany on Warren Street.