Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL)

Hello everyone! My name is Bryana and in September 2022, at 23 years old, I was rushed to the hospital unable to breathe. I recently went on a trip to Las Vegas and had gotten sick while there, but never expected what was coming for me next.

In 2019, knots started to appear on my neck and jawline. My face was also massively swollen. I was unrecognizable. I had difficulty breathing, and major parts of my body were swollen as well. After several tests and two surgeries, I was unexpectedly diagnosed with non-Hodgkin T-cell lymphoma (NHL). I was told that if the cancer had stages, I was considered stage 4.

Hello, my name is Keana. I am 26 years old, and I was born in Columbus Ohio. I was born with a rare heart condition called “hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.” It is a hereditary disease on my mother’s side. Many family members, including my mother, have passed away from the disease, and the other half received heart transplants, which is what led to me.

In the fall of 2002, I had a missed call and a “call me when you’re out of class” text from my Dad. I was a sophomore at the University of Georgia when I heard, “Honey, I have cancer. Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM).” So, I took a deep breath and asked, “Okay, so what’s next? Surgery? Radiation? Chemo?” “Nothing, we wait until it gets bad enough for treatment.”

Finding out Ashton was sick started as a bunch of nothing―small headaches, fevers, dizzy spells―but you would never know she was not well. She was working, going to school, and caring for her son. Then the lumps came. They first started in her neck and abdomen.