Search Results

Carol

Meet carol. hodgkin survivor. indiana. Carol was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2010. After being a stay-at-home mom, she went back to school to get her teaching degree and found out she had a grapefruit size tumor in her chest when she was one week away from finishing her student teaching. She put off finding a teaching job for a year while going through six months of chemotherapy. She was able to work as a learning specialist while going through her treatments as she had a very supportive principal.

Christopher

In January 2013, I was diagnosed with PH+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). I had just turned 19 and finished my first semester at the University of Florida. I missed the rest of my freshman year but after eight months in and out of the hospital, I achieved remission and my doctors allowed me to go back to school for the fall.

Joan

In October 2014, I was handing out candy to my neighborhood’s tiny ghouls and goblins, but the scariest thing that Halloween was a phone call from my doctor. My heart pounded as the doctor told me I had myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare blood disorder in which the bone marrow stops functioning properly. My current MDS diagnosis is refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts. My treatment consists of red blood transfusions and Reblozyl® injections.

Mollie

Although I was a cancer patient many years ago, survivorship is a journey I take every day. Ever since my diagnosis, I’ve spent my free time engaging with the childhood cancer community and learning more about myself.

Fely

Hello, my name is Fely Agustin, I am 38 years old and a mother to two teenagers. One is going to be a freshman in college and another a freshman in high school. I am married to a wonderful husband of almost 17 years. I was diagnosed on May 6, 2015 with Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia (WM).

Greysun

Hi! My name is Greysun! I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) on March 23, 2011. I was fortunate to get outstanding medical treatment at UNC Children's Hospital and the cancer center. I have been through many rounds of chemo followed by up to six weeks of hospitalization after each one. I have had radiation to my brain followed up by my first bone marrow transplant.

Lisa

I lost my big brother Vincent J. Di Cristo to two forms of cancer on February 14, 2014. He apparently had both high grade B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma as well as Burkitt lymphoma. I’m very confused as to how he could have had two different types of cancer because as far as I know, he was always in good health.

Dulcy

I was 18 and had just moved away to go to nursing school, when I was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). In 1997, the only treatment option for CML was a stem cell transplant, a far cry from the oral treatment options available today.

Miguel

In 2017, I found out I had non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). I was always a healthy person who exercised almost daily at the time, so this came as a complete shock. I immediately wanted to start treatment; the sooner the better. My wife did all the research and investigating into where I could find the best treatment as quickly as possible. We were emotionally devastated by the entire ordeal. 

Nicole

My name is Nicole, and I am a 21-year-old cancer survivor! Last year, on February 1st, I started to go for chemotherapy after being misdiagnosed for TWO years! For those two years, I was told that the softball-sized lymph nodes in my neck were all because of allergies… I knew something was wrong when it became the size it did, and being vain was going around it. I went to Astera Cancer Center in East Brunswick, NJ, for my 6 months of chemo. Even though I only went there to get chemicals pumped, I loved everyone around me. They didn’t just treat me as a number.

Paul

I was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) at age 25 and since then I've had two bone marrow transplants and CAR-T. For the past 8 years I have been on and off "healthy" and undergoing or actively recovering from treatment. I talked about some of the things I did during those treatments to help my motivation and morale, but there is a lot about the treatments themselves that were unique to someone like me, a mixed race, young adult with blood cancer.

Loxley

In early September of 2020, my son started to complain of back pain. I took him to the pediatrician, where he was assessed and a multiview x-ray was ordered. It was normal. I agreed to keep a log of his back pain complaints.

Ira

In August 2014, at age 48, I was literally in the best shape of my life. I was an avid cyclist, averaging more than 150 miles per week, leading groups of riders for my cycling club, and completing multiple 100-mile century rides in a single season. Over the course of just a few days, while cycling, I noticed a sudden setback in my performance. Virtually overnight I lost stamina, speed, and endurance. Roads or hills I had ridden countless times before instantly became unmanageable. Thinking I was battling the flu or a virus, I visited my doctor. Blood tests revealed an abnormality.

Hannah

My name is Hannah Gallant. I am an 11 years old from Quispamsis, New Brunswick Canada. In August 2016, after several trips to the doctor and the hospital because I wasn’t feeling well, my parents brought me to the hospital for blood work. I wasn't worried, because I thought it was just growing pains. We got the results that same day, my parents found out it was a form of leukemia called acute lymphoblastic leukemia (AML). They didn’t tell me until the final diagnosis took place at the IWK. I was very worried, and even though I didn't know what leukemia was.

Heather

My name is Heather and I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) +FLT3/ITD on December 14th, 2017. That morning I noticed I was extremely pale and I had large bruises over my body. My doctor ran blood work STAT and within an hour I knew my platelets were below 20 and I needed to rush to the ER. I was pretty near death at that time. I was in Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC), which has a pretty high mortality rate.

Avi

My journey began a few months into 2020. I was making plans to celebrate my birthday by going to some amusement parks I hadn't been to in many years. Unfortunately, that's when the pandemic hit, and going to the parks was no longer an option. A few months later, I started to get sick. Fever, night sweats, little to no appetite, weight loss. We didn't know if it was COVID-19 or not. I went to urgent care, and they didn't help (sent me home with Tylenol), and I was still not feeling it. I went to get bloodwork as something was off and I was starting to show signs of jaundice.

Kate

On May 17, 2018, our family was thrown into the world of blood cancer. Our family's patriarch, our bonus dad, and our beloved "Candy Boy," as he was affectionately nicknamed by his youngest daughter, found out that he was in the aggressive stages of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Savanna

My name is Savanna, I’m 24 years old, and I am a two-time Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) survivor! I was diagnosed in 2017 when I was 18 during my freshman year of college. I had been severely sick for a year and a half with symptoms ranging from nausea, vomiting, unexplained weight loss, lack of appetite to a distended abdomen, debilitating migraines, swollen lymph nodes all over my body, extreme fatigue, and drenching night sweats. I had test after test done, saw doctor after doctor, and after months of being my own advocate, I had finally received a diagnosis.

Christen

Originally from northern New York, Christen moved to Denver, Colorado, in 2015 after completing her Bachelor of Science of Nursing at Le Moyne College to pursue a career in cancer care. Through a close relationship with her grandparents, she saw how her grandma, a retired registered nurse, graciously cared for her grandpa while he lived with esophageal cancer for close to a decade. The unwavering love, dedication, and courage they shared inspired Christen to seek out a specialty that allowed her to provide compassionate, holistic care to those in need.

Deanna

Within 24 hours of going to the local emergency room in New York, I found myself being admitted to the Dana Farber/Brigham Women's Cancer Center in Boston. It was August of 2013 and I was exhausted beyond anything my four kids could inflict upon me and shocked to find out it wasn't anemia, I had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Madeline

My daughter is Madeline Conley.  On January 7, 2014, three days after her 15th birthday,  she was diagnosed with leukemia (AML/MDS).  She was a high school cheerleader and cheer coach who was basically ripped out of her normal active life and immediately admitted to the hospital, where she spent the next five months. It was the scariest thing we've ever been through.

Ethar

Refugee Family Gives Back to LLS after Daughter Survives Leukemia

Sixteen-year-old Ethar and her family moved to the United States from Iraq in 2015. Just one year later, she was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

“It all started when my lymph nodes began to swell and the pain became very intense,” said Ethar. “It was at this point, that I went to the emergency room with my father so we could try to make sense of what was happening to me.”

Starlet

When I was born, I was healthy and hardly ever got sick. Well, when I turned one, I had fevers that would come and go and then my mom started to notice I would limp and bruise easily. My mom decided to take me to the hospital after a persistent fever and the limping and bruising got worse. The doctors then referred us to Valley Children’s where they did blood work on me.

After the results came in my parents heard the words no one ever wants to hear: their one-year-old daughter is now diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Keisha

In 2017, I was diagnosed with a rare and chronic form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). I was beyond devastated as I knew there was no cure for my condition, and I also knew my life would be altered in many ways. I was also finishing my last semester in graduate school and almost gave up my dream of graduating. But with the support of my family, school, physicians, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), I persisted and received my Master of Education in 2018.

Casey

It was in May, 2014 that 24-year-old Casey Moore began experiencing her first symptoms of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). For a week straight, Casey had been vomiting every day and was losing a significant amount of weight. This was unusual, as prior to her symptoms, she considered herself a happy, healthy woman focused on her relationship and career. At the time, she was living with her boyfriend and working full time in a chiropractic office -- with no apparent signs of an illness.