Reserve your spot now for an intimate dinner with Andrew McMahon and the Dear Jack Foundation
I was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome that required open heart surgery at one week of age. I have had a total of six heart surgeries and am followed closely by my cardiologist. In March of 2024 I thought I had a sinus infection but was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma. I’m 21 and just finished chemo. I have an MRI soon and then radiation.
In November of 2020, during a routine checkup for my hydrocephalus (a condition I’ve had since birth), things took a turn. A CT scan caught something unexpected – lesions in my lungs. Turns out, it was stage four lung cancer, a huge shock at just 33 years old. February of 2021 marked the start of a tough fight. I battled through six different treatments, all combining chemo and immunotherapy drugs. There’s finally good news! The treatment I started last September is keeping the cancer stable – the longest stretch of good news I’ve had so far. This fight is far from over, and treatment will likely be a part of my life for the foreseeable future, but this stability feels like a win, a chance to keep living life to the fullest.
At the age of 15, I had brain surgery and we found out that I had brain and spinal cancer. I did a few years of intravenous chemotherapy and then found my cancer was staying stable. Ten years later, at the age of 25, we found through an MRI that my cancer had begun growing again. When we found out this news, I immediately had spinal surgery and started back on chemotherapy. I’ve done many different kinds of treatments since being diagnosed again and have suffered through most of them.It is my understanding that I’ll be on cancer treatment for the rest of my life. My husband has been the shining light in this dark season.
I was diagnosed at the age of 38 on January 17th of 2024. I had been in my basement doing work and accidentally hit the back of my head twice on some low hanging beams. I had a headache and figured I had a mild concussion. When I returned to work in January, I experienced one of the worst persistent headaches. I decided to go to the ER, where they did a CT scan and found a mass in my brain. Previous to all this I have been healthy, maybe a little accident prone, but never very sick. I am a father of a three year old boy who is the light of my life, and am married to the woman of my dreams for the last 5 years. I was fortunate to get my brain resection done almost immediately. I’ve been a teacher for over 12 years and have been grateful for the ability to take a health sabbatical. I want to go back in September but will have to see if the 1.5 hour commute is a viable option, especially since I want to spend the most time with my family. It’s been six months since my diagnosis and I’m grateful for continuous health and the ability to stay an active parent and husband. I bike everyday, drop off my son at daycare, cook and keep up with yard work.
In 2021, at the age of 15 I was diagnosed with the same cancer my younger brother was diagnosed with in 2012 when he was four years old – pre B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. I went through over two years of treatment from 2021 to 2023. In early 2024, my ALL returned and I entered a relapse protocol that consisted of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation, and a stem cell transplant.
A “she shed” so she has a space that is all hers while she recovers.
I was diagnosed in May of 2024 after feeling pain in my left breast and discovering a lump. I have the CHEK2 mutation and my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 7 and died from the disease when I was 17, so I knew I was at high risk. Upon further testing, it was discovered that I have two tumors in my left breast and multiple lymph node involvement, and I was diagnosed with triple positive breast cancer.
I underwent fertility preservation to create embryos after being diagnosed, and I am currently undergoing chemotherapy for four and a half months. After chemo, I will undergo surgery for a double mastectomy, followed by radiation. After radiation I will need to be on hormone therapy for years.
A trip to SoCal with her family.
While I was pregnant with my youngest son, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. My OBGYN had referred me to the high risk clinic where they found that I have a genet
ic mutation. Tons of appointments, testing, imaging and a surgery later. I was diagnosed with stage 2b invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer and chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma. I am 38 years old with three young children who were ages four, three and one at the time of my diagnosis.
This has been a difficult transition of letting others take care of me!! I am a registered nurse and have always been the person taking care of others. My treatment plan has included a bilateral mastectomy, 8 rounds of chemotherapy and 25 rounds of radiation. I am being monitored for the leukemia/lymphoma at this time and it’s currently unknown when I will need treatment for that. I am currently half done with the chemo regimen and still need to complete the radiation.
A swing set for their backyard.
In May of 2023, I made an appointment with my doctor because I was having GI changes and had been keeping a journal to track new/strange symptoms. They wanted to rule out allergies/intolerances and prescribed fiber supplements and my blood labs showed very low ferritin levels, so I also started iron supplements. In August of 2023, I returned to the doctor as my GI symptoms continued and my ferritin levels had only increased slightly. After a discussion, my doctor was ready to continue with a continuation of iron and fiber supplements. I was getting ready to leave disappointed when my doctor asked the medical student to give their opinion. They said they thought a colonoscopy could be an appropriate next step and, although there is no family history, my doctor agreed. In December of 2023, I had my first colonoscopy and was immediately sent for a CT scan to confirm my colon cancer diagnosis at age 35. A week later, I had my first ever surgery to remove the cancer and have a resection.
In January of 2023, I started fertility preservation treatment. I only had time for one round of treatment due to needing to start chemo ASAP. Freezing my eggs was never something I had thought about and frankly knew very little about. It’s hard to describe how hard this time was and still is. I feel like I was thrust into such life changing decisions (that needed to happen ASAP) out of nowhere amongst facing cancer and all that means.
Since February of 2023, I have had chemo treatments every other week. I have two more rounds to go.
Check back soon. she’s still deciding!
In May of 2023 around my 21st birthday I was having multiple nosebleeds a day. Some of the nose bleeds lasted up to an hour. I was seen a few times at walk-in care and was treated with four different antibiotics for “a sinus infection.” I couldn’t breathe out of the left side of my nose. In early August 2023 I was finally able to get a referral to an ENT. The ENT ordered a stat CT scan. It came back as a “mass” and I was told I needed an MRI on my face ASAP. Once the MRI was completed, I was advised I needed to go to Boston right away because I had a tumor. Once there, I was told I need a CTA scan then a biopsy. On my sister’s 18th birthday, I went to the OR for a biopsy. My parents were told less than an hour after me going into the OR that I had cancer. We were told I needed to stay as the cancer I have is very rare and aggressive. So I stayed another night and the plan was made. I could go home for the weekend and be back Monday to start further testing and treatment. In the meantime, we contacted our cancer center, and we were told that we would have to be treated in Boston as no one in our home state could treat my cancer.I have had 33 rounds of radiation and 14 rounds of chemo. I have scans again soon.
Tickets to see Inter Miami vs NYCFC
I was diagnosed with small cell carcinoma in January of 2023. I was a high school senior, three months away from graduating. I first noticed I was struggling with really bad breathing during football season in August of 2022. I didn’t want to sit out my football season so I was resisting going to get checked up at first. About midseason I finally agreed with my mother that I would go get checked up and I was told it was pneumonia without getting imaging and was first put on antibiotics for a few months. While I was on antibiotics, I was still playing football and eventually finished the season off well. More months went by and my breathing was just getting worse, so January came around and they finally agreed to allow me to get imaging and they found a very large tumor in my left lung. Once they found the tumor, I was immediately taken by ambulance to the hospital. Once I got there, they took imaging on my full body and ended up finding cancer in a few other places, including my brain. They immediately came up with a plan and I started chemo. Finding this out really upset me and it really changed my future goals and plans of playing college football after graduation. I went through multiple rounds of chemo and radiation. It initially worked, but then came back sadly, then I was put on a trial medication that I did very well on. I recently found out that there is now growth again so we came up with a new plan to restart and do chemo again.
Tickets to the Ohio State vs Michigan game for he and his family.
