The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night Walk serves as an inspiring, empowering and comforting event, made possible by those who share, remember, and advocate for the fight against cancer. Each year, we here at LLS are graced with countless stories that demonstrate and display the spirit of this event. Heather Lee’s story is one of them.
On December 29, 2011, I heard those numbing words “you have cancer.” I was 23 years old, about to turn 24 and my whole world came to a screeching halt. After months of feeling “off,” multiple visits to all kinds of doctors, repeat blood work, scans and biopsies, it was finally determined that I had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
I am 39 years old. At the age of 34 after having been very sick and misdiagnosed for over a year I was diagnosed at the Cleveland Clinic in May 2016 with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
May of 2017, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma following my 19th birthday. The news of cancer shook my reality as I’d just began establishing my life. I was forced to give up my independence and lean on my community.
In the beginning, when I was processing my cancer diagnosis, I kept asking myself, “why me?”. That after all these years I worked hard to better my health, eating the right foods and working out. But in the world of cancer it didn’t matter, this disease couldn’t have recognize all I’ve done, and I was chosen. I am now part of their world, and how I travel through my journey will depend on me.
In March 2019 I began feeling off...I didn't know what it was. I thought perhaps it was a loss of relationship that broke me to my core, or that fact that an old friend had asked me to be kidney donor for someone I had never know. I agreed to be tested to see if I was a possible match. Fast forward to October when I was tested a possible blood clot that had formed from all of this.
My story begins almost 24 years ago in 1996, when I was diagnosed with cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Back then, there was no cure for CLL except for a bone marrow transplant (BMT), but that procedure only had a survival rate of 50%, not very attractive odds. My prognosis was I had anywhere from six to 15 years without a BMT.
Erica was diagnosed with potentially fatal Stage 4 Hodgkin Lymphoma on March 28, 2013. Her journey to survive her battle with cancer was very trying but after overcoming her obstacles, Erica is very passionate about inspiring people to have the d’zire to survive any challenges that they may face in their lives.
Our Journey On June 26 2013, at six years old, Mateo was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Our world was completely upside down since that night. Our hearts shattered when we processed the words "your child has cancer ".
On December 30, 2019, we found out my three-year-old granddaughter, Maklynn has cancer! It is one in 10,000 children that gets this and even less on both kidneys! The medical term for it is neuroblastoma.