In 2002, I was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I was 40 years old, and had a 7-year-old daughter. When I didn’t respond to traditional treatments and had an immediate recurrence, my only hope for remission was to be enrolled in a clinical trial. This trial was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and it is because of that trial that I am alive today.
Because of a clinical trial funded by the NIH and the NCI, I am alive today and have been a part of my daughter’s life growing up.
That treatment is what allowed me to be the one to teach my daughter how to drive, to watch her win three state championships on the tennis court, to watch her graduate Cullman High School, to later watch her graduate from Auburn and move to Nashville, and start her career in architecture. That research is what’s going to allow me to be the one to walk her down the aisle one day.