I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) at 18 years old in New York. Two and a half years of aggressive chemotherapy later, I was cancer-free.
Six years after that, I rode my bicycle 3,168 miles across the United States to celebrate.
Then, in 2017, the chemotherapy that saved my life caught up with my heart. I had a heart attack at 32. I had a golf ball-sized clot in my left ventricle and had open heart surgery. An LVAD pump was installed in my chest. I eventually had a heart transplant. My donor was Navy flight surgeon Lieutenant James Mazzuchelli, who was killed in a helicopter training accident at 32 years old. A year and a half after receiving his heart, I rode 1,426 miles from San Diego to his burial site in Jacksonville, Florida, to meet his family and honor him.
Mike
acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
