Adults

I was 28, married for two years, and my husband and I had just celebrated our one-year anniversary at my business, Gigi’s Cupcakes. But on March 30, 2012, that all changed.

My name is Glenn Gutierrez and at 48 years of age I had never contemplated the idea of having to deal with cancer and its treatment. It was hard to think that potentially I could succumb to this, especially when I was father to two young men who still needed me, and son to an aging mother who sadly passed on from complications related to Alzheimer's while I underwent treatment.

In 1995, Michael’s daughter Carley was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), M-7 – a  rare form of blood cancer – at just two and a half years old. For the following year, Michael and his wife, Liz, practically lived at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego while Carley underwent heavy chemotherapy treatment.

Bryant, age five, was diagnosed with Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in April 2014. At the time of his diagnosis he was the typical 3-year-old, who loved to say “NO.” As an independent guy, who wants to make all decisions, he didn’t have many choices for the first few months of treatment. 

I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1995, just several months after my husband was required to go on dialysis for polycystic kidneys. We had three very young children then and my only chance of survival was to have an allogeneic bone marrow transplant, which at the time was considered experimental.

I am a cancer survivor and my story starts in the summer of 1999. On June 9, an MRI revealed a tumor the size of a golf ball in my brain. A biopsy showed it to be a primary central nervous system non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I remember this date vividly because it was my wife’s birthday and she had to break the news to me. This marked the beginning of our journey.

Dorothy Spriggs was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in 1999 and is currently doing well.

Since 2011, “Ms. Dottie” has volunteered with the Baltimore chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  She does office work regularly, participates in events and volunteers as a peer counselor to support others living with the same diagnosis.