Young Adult

King has a rare combination of a blood cancer called leukemia (high risk) and G6PD which is an incurable, lifelong blood disorder. His treatment plan is 3 1/2 years of daily chemotherapy. He is up to 75 pills per month, and this does not include intravenous or spinal chemo.

Our daughter Britta Wolfarth was 19 when she was diagnosed with AML. We were shocked because we thought it was a blood disorder due to her lupus. The same day for the guy diagnosed she started treatment at West Penn in Pittsburgh right away.

Diagnosed with ALL in 5th grade, my hopes for a normal and healthy childhood were quickly shattered. The impact on my family began as devastation but has since metamorphosed into restoration, healing, and a closeness beyond this world (bonus, my brother and I have never fought since the day I received the news of my disease).

December of 2017 was a difficult time for me. It is the month that is usually filled with happiness, excitement and Christmas cheer. For me, it was the month I found out that I had Hodgkin lymphoma. It’s crazy when you think about it – we see all of these facts and figures about people who are diagnosed with cancer and we never, really, truly believe it could happen to us.

Bald is beautiful. Words and looks can be truly powerful. Positivity can change one’s opinion and most important of all, people. Surround yourself with people that make you cry that you’re laughing so hard, that make you smile for no reason, and leave your heart whole.

I am a caregiver and girlfriend to Alec Bishop. A strong and courageous man that has been fighting primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma for over a year and a half. He was diagnosed in August 2017 with a softball-sized tumor pressing on his superior Vena Cava. He went through 6 cycles of R-CHOP chemotherapy only to relapse with a new tumor a month after his last cycle of chemo.