Aleta is
Blood Cancer United

I was diagnosed on August 13, 2013 with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It was totally out of the blue. I had been married for just a year at the time of my diagnosis and sadly my husband couldn't handle a wife with cancer and we divorced.

I was once again a single mom to a 14-year-old girl who had just started her freshman year of  high school. I have always been healthy and couldn't figure out why this happened to me. After my first round of induction chemotherapy, I was in remission. Leukemia comes with a 2.5-year maintenance chemo program. Every day is a struggle filled with pills, fear, anger, faith and hope.

I participated in my first Light The Night walk just two months after my diagnosis and this will be my third year. Being a part of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society helped me see and feel that I am not alone. Every three months, I go in for lumbar punctures with chemotherapy injections and every six months I go in for bone marrow biopsies.

Cancer isn't easy...but nothing worthwhile in life is easy. This journey has made me a better mother, sister, daughter and friend. I have learned to better value myself, others and life in general. I have days where I still don't believe I have cancer and then days when it smacks me in the face with a two-by-four! Something I am so thankful for, is the fact that I now know my own strength. I know I can get through anything and this too will one day be a memory!