My story:  It all started with a cough... I was a 13 year old 8th grader and competing in a high school basketball game.  I felt a little sluggish and didn't get as much playing time as I was used to.  On the way home from the game my parents noticed that I and had a little cough.  The cough had been around for about a week... what seemed like normal school "bugs"... but we decided to stop at the urgent care on the way home from the game and get some antibiotics.  We went to Doctor's Care at Ivy Hall, in Mt. Pleasant... our usual physician.  I was diagnosed with bronchitis and we were out the door, antibiotics in hand, and on the road to wellness... or so we thought.  A week later at the next game I had the same feeling... something isn't quite right.  I'm not playing enough... not myself on the court.  On the way home I was still coughing... so we went back to Doctor's Care for a follow-up.  We were thinking "I probably just need a stronger antibiotic.  In this day and age of antimicrobial hand soaps, the abuse and overuse of antibiotics and industrial strength cleaners, and the such.  Bacteria are getting stronger and sometimes normal drugs don't cut it."  The Doc checks me out again and hypothesizes that I have pneumonia, but before he sends me home with a stronger antibiotic he suggests we do a quick chest X-Ray... "Just to be sure" he says.  A quick trip up the hall and back... few minutes go by... and the Doc asks my dad to step out into the hallway for a sec.  He obliges...a little odd that they need to pow-wow in the hallway... but then the Doc ushers my Dad over to a screen with the XRay image on it and tells him that something is "not normal".  He's not sure what it is exactly, but the heart and chest cavity in the picture looks off.  "Go directly to MUSC Children's Hospital downtown", he says.  "Go to the ER, and give them this disk with the XRay on it.  They are going to run a few tests and admit you."   By the end of that day I would be told I have cancer.

I was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin's Lymphoma in Dec 2017... a week before my 14th birthday and two weeks before Christmas.  Our family went from being excited about a healthy 8th grader making the Wando High School basketball team (biggest HS in SC), and preparing for a busy Holiday season... to hearing I have a large tumor draped around my heart and a tumor in each of my lungs.  Then spending weeks in the hospital undergoing CT scans, Xrays, PET scans, blood tests, a surgery to take lung and bone marrow biopsies, another surgery to place a port, and starting chemotherapy... all before New Years.  Our family spent the next 6 months fighting through cancer treatment and the associated complications.

 - Five 21-day rounds of experimental chemotherapy 

- a week hospital stay after developing a blood clot (DVT) that blocked 75% of the right atrium in my heart - moved to Jacksonville, FL for a month while I had 15 rounds of Proton Radiation to his chest cavity 

- 200+ self-administered injections of Lovenox (blood thinner) to my own stomach (2 times a day) 

- weekly (sometimes daily) trips to MUSC pediatric oncology for chemo and blood tests 

- 50+ scans, ultrasounds and Xrays 

- Taking up to 40+ pills per day during chemo 

- 6 months of not being allowed to attend school because the terrible flu season later... 

I am now in REMISSION!!!

We are participating in this program not only to raise money for LLS... but to achieve something positive and promote healing for our family after what has been a very challenging time in our lives for the past 2 years.  This is therapy.

Please help us raise funds to support the research of new treatments... this will save and improve lives.  Please help us work towards a cure.  Please help us raise funds to support those undergoing treatment who need education, or care they can't otherwise afford, or rides to the clinic, the list is endless... and every little bit helps. 

All donations are greatly appreciated and are tax deductible. They'll not only support LLS-funded research but will help provide critical information and support for patients, and support advocacy for laws to ensure patients can access the care and treatments they need.

Please visit our website often and bring friends who would also like to donate!

On behalf of blood cancer patients everywhere, thank you for your support!

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