I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (AML) in August 2014. Two weeks later I found out that I would need a blood and marrow transplant (BMT), but I did not match with anyone on the BMT registry. My youngest daughter Kelly was my only hope for a BMT match.
Leukemia
My early twenties were everything I imagined they would be. They were fun, filled with life and discovery, naive in the best of ways, connected by travels, and laced with endless dreams. This was until I hit a road block at age 25. Cancer stood in my tracks. What was I to do?
One day in 1955, Dr. James Grace’s two-year-old son, Jimmy, spiked a fever of 105°. It was the first sign that the little boy had acute leukemia — a fast-moving disease that in those days had no hope of a cure. When his son died only a few months later, Dr. Grace converted his pain to passion.
“There he is – there’s my brother!” says Phil Richiuso, spotting the #18 FC Dallas jersey during a Major League Soccer game on TV. Richiuso doesn’t know much about professional soccer. And #18, goalkeeper Chris Seitz, isn’t really related to the 57-year-old man from Erie, PA.
Down syndrome is one of the most well-known and common chromosomal disorders—there are approximately 400,000 people in the United States with the condition, also known as trisomy 21.