My son, AJ, was diagnosed with leukemia on September 23, 2014, and from then on, our life changed. AJ had bumps, turns, and stops during his treatment, but we were lucky to have found The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) about a year into his 3¼-year treatment protocol.
Our first event was a Light The Night (LTN) walk one year, one month, and one day from his diagnosis date. It was a special evening where AJ was able to see so many survivors and be surrounded by people who supported him. From there, we participated in the Pennies for Patients program at his elementary school where we were filmed for the student series.
Our family thoroughly enjoyed all of these aspects of LLS, but we were unaware of the storm that was brewing. AJ had been struggling with mental health issues, and we had reached out to our care team, but we were told to wait and see or that it was just him and not cancer-related.
Once treatment ended, we had to take matters into our own hands and find AJ the care he needed. We could no longer live in the wait-and-see world. We knew that cancer and its treatment had fundamentally changed our son and how he functioned in the world. We have tirelessly worked to get him the mental health care he needs to move through his post-cancer world.
In 2023, our oncologist finally handed over paperwork that confirmed what we had already known, that AJ’s mental health struggles were late-term effects from all the chemotherapy he received. It was a little consolation to my mother’s heart. With this in mind, I was worried when I was asked to attend a Dare to Dream Symposium in Chicago to represent New Jersey.
My son’s cancer journey had finished seven years previous, and mental health isn’t a top side effect in the cancer world. While I was there, I met the most amazing people who helped me see that my son’s story is their story and that any late-term effects due to outdated chemotherapy and protocols are unacceptable. We need Dare to Dream Ambassadors to help bring stories like ours to the forefront and help the generation coming to not suffer like my son AJ did and does.
Maria
volunteer
