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Hiking for a Cure!

Welcome to my Team In Training home page!

3/8/09

Can anyone say REMISSION? I know I can! That's right, six months, three intense Chemo treatments and a double cord blood transplant later, we received the preliminary news that my dad has reached remission. I couldn't be more happy for him. This whole experience has been overwhelming.

Eventhough we have gotten rid of the Leukemia we still have a road ahead of us. He is currently experiencing some Graft v. Host complications. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a common complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in which functional immune cells in the transplanted marrow recognize the recipient as "foreign" and mount an immunologic attack.

Thank you all for your generous donations and please continue to support my Team in Training hike to the Grand Canyon. Donations from people like you have kept my father alive and with me today so spread the word and keep the donations coming!

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3/3/09

Tomorrow is a big day. My dad gets his first bone marrow biopsy since his double cord blood transplant. It's go time! We should have the results within the week.

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2/26/09

Thanks so much for all the donations this far. I have a way to go until I reach my fundraising goal of $5,000 but it is people like you that make it possible.

I feel it is time to give a shout out to my wonderful boyfriend Blake who has joined me on this exciting journey. After you donate :) please check out his fundraising page, it blows mine out of the water! http://pages.teamintraining.org/stx/CanyonS309/BlakeMBoyd

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2/8/09

As you may know on September 14, 2008 my father was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. After a couple Chemotherapy attempts to cure him we were unsuccessful because his Leukemia was refractory (won't respond to traditional Chemotherapy methods). From that point my father was sent over to the Bone Marrow Transplant specialists at Main Methodist. We had very little time to find him a Marrow match and before we knew it, he didn't have a match or have time to keep looking. From there he moved forward with a double Umbilical cord blood transplant. He is currently 80 days post transplant. Right now he is experiencing some Graft v. Host problems but hopefully this is just part of the process and he will go on to live a wonderful full life. We should find out in the next few weeks if he has reached remission so please continue to keep him in your prayers!

My dad calls his cancer a divine gift from God. He feels like if he had to go through this in order to positively impact at least one persons life, then it was worth it. Having a personal connection to blood cancers has provided me the opportunity to connect with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) and raise money with thousands of other people to find cures. My dad is my hero, he always has been, please join me in the fight to cure blood cancers by making a donation of any size. It means the world to me, my father and thousands of others.

I'm training to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. Each of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see me and my fathers progress. Thanks for your support!