Leukemia

My daughter Sarah was a fun, smart, and scrappy kid. She was a great student, was involved in Student Council, was President of her class, played in the marching band, and played rugby. She had caught a cold around Thanksgiving of 2010. By December 7, she was in the hospital. We were told she had acute myeloid leukemia (AML). I wasn’t even sure what leukemia was, but I knew it was serious.

I was truly honored to be a recipient of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) Scholarship for Blood Cancer Survivors. After fighting two different types of cancer, both forms of lymphoma and leukemia, I was unsure what my collegiate education would look like.

After being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in March of 2011 when I was only 10 years old, my entire life changed and was put on hold. I went through months of treatments to slow down the cancer, looked for the best possible hospitals in my area, and was able to get a bone marrow transplant in August 2011 from my brother who was a matched donor.

Last year in June of 2021, I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) at the age of 24. This diagnosis came as a complete shock to my family and me! My symptoms included extreme fatigue, migraines, bruising, nose bleeds, and radiating leg pains. All these symptoms came and went, and I never would've imagined it would be cancer. I attributed my symptoms to the stress from work.

On February 2nd, 2019 my youngest daughter, Harper, was diagnosed with leukemia. Three and a half years later as I'm writing this I have a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.