Leukemia

Hi, my name is Carley and I am an angel.  I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 1995 and I died in 1996. I was 3 ½ years old when I died and I tried so hard to live, but AML was just so terrible and there weren’t a lot treatments back then. My parents were so sad when I went to heaven.

Hi, my name is Carley and I am an angel.  I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 1995 and I died in 1996. I was 3 ½ years old when I died and I tried so hard to live, but AML was just so terrible and there weren’t a lot treatments back then. My parents were so sad when I went to heaven.

My wife and I would have never heard of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) if it were not for losing our 12-year-old daughter on March 12, 2013 to undiagnosed leukemia. If you've heard me speak of my daughter Sophia, you've heard this word: perfect. Her laugh, her eyes, her beautiful smile were all perfect. Sophia was a loving, kind and compassionate child.

On January 19, 2012, I lost the love of my life to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We were together for 21 years and this was not how our love story was supposed to end. Too young, too soon… still so much to do, to see, to experience – How do you go on? How do you continue life without the other half of you? How do you stop crying in the shower, before the water runs cold?

On Oct. 24, 2011, my husband, Rob Smith, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He had a bad case from the beginning. He was FLT3 positive and had poor cytogenetics. He received so many rounds of treatments I can not keep count.

My caregiver journey began in 2005, when my husband found a lump on his neck and was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. After being admitted to the hospital for nine rounds of chemotherapy, he went into remission.

(As told by Russ Parker’s wife Karen A. Parker)

In the fall of 2004, Russ was looking forward to a surfing trip to Fiji with his son Rusty and a group of good friends.  He was a real estate developer, surfer, soccer coach, swimmer and runner. Russ was rarely sick.

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.