CARTER COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - He's not even four years old yet but could need a bone marrow transplant any day.

That's because Cody Richards of Carter County has a rare form of anemia that eventually leads to bone marrow failure.

He celebrated his birthday a day early Sunday night.

He'll be four years old Monday, and Batman is his hero. But to Cody's mom, he is the only hero she sees in the room.

"Other than his disease, he's pretty healthy and normal acting. You wouldn't know he's sick," said Nikki Middleton, Cody's mother.

Cody is a typical kid celebrating another birthday. But looking at him you wouldn't know how tough it has been for his family since he was just nine months old.

"Like when he got the flu, I think we battled with that for like two months because it kind of suppressed his bone marrow. And we were back and forth with the stomach virus, so we were at the hospital for like a week or two," said Middleton.

It could be any day that he needs a bone marrow transplant.

Millions of people are on the bone marrow registry list and recently Cody's family added 100 of those people, who are mostly members of their church.

Cody's mom says the hard part is waiting for and wondering when he'll need a transplant.

"Now his bone marrow doesn't work like it should and so all of his blood counts are lower. Doctors won't do a transplant until he's in complete bone marrow failure, so it's just kind of like when," said Middleton.

But for now, she says she's just going to watch him fight and beat the odds like a true hero would.

For more information on how you could become a bone marrow donor, see the link below.