Inspirational Stories

Ever since I saw my dad run the New York City Marathon in 2019, I knew it was something that I wanted to strive toward. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I put that dream on pause to start a full-time job as a clinical research coordinator for bone marrow transplants. 

Flash forward to 2022, I was talking to a patient who was enrolled in one of the clinical trials that I was conducting. He was telling me about his most recent bout with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and how he felt like the process of getting to his second remission had felt like a “marathon.” He fully believed that his current remission was because of the most recently FDA-approved drugs. In this conversation, he also made sure to tell me all about how The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) had played a key role in both his and his wife’s education about the disease with their many resources. In looking to find out more information on the LLS website, an ad for Team In Training (TNT) came up. Since starting my job as a coordinator, I have become even more passionate about cancer research, and at the time of the ad, I was also getting back into running. I knew that this was the perfect opportunity to honor all the patients who are bravely fighting their own marathon. 

This past spring, I transitioned into a new role, and while I don't get to do research directly with these cancers anymore, I still have a passion for life-saving research and making sure that one day we #CancelBloodCancer.