Saving Another's Life (Blood Cancer Awareness Month)

Today marks the beginning of Blood Cancer Awareness Month.  First. I thought it is was imperative to share some staggering facts about this terrible disease. 

• Approximately every 4 minutes one person in the United States will be diagnosed with a Blood Cancer.  While, approximately every 10 minutes one person in the United States will die from a Blood Cancer.
• There is an estimated 275,000 people in the United States living with or in remission form of Leukemia
• In 2011 44,600 people were expected to be diagnosed with Leukemia.  While 21,800 people are expected to die from Leukemia.
• Approximately 31% more males are living with Leukemia than females
• Leukemia causes almost one third of all cancer deaths in children and adolescents.  

When you really sit down and look at some of the stats surrounding Leukemia and Blood Cancers it is easy to be taken aback.  These are extremely aggressive forms of Cancer that take some of the most brutal and aggressive forms of treatment there is to fight them off.   

In fact the five year survival rate for someone diagnosed with Leukemia between the years of 2001-2007 is 57%.    When looking at some of these stats it is understandable why most people get quickly overwhelmed with grief and fear when they are facing them for the first time.   The fact is it is not all bad news.  In fact, being diagnosed with Leukemia a mere 50 years ago (between 1960-1963) was essentially a death sentence with a five year survival rate of merely 14%.   So you can see significant progress is being made in the fight against this disease.   I thought to kick off Blood Cancer Awareness month I would take you on a short pictoral jouney. 

On my way to get diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Receiving some life sustaining Red Blood Cells, through the selfess generosity of a stranger

 

Receiving the best Christmas Gift one could ask for....a bag full of stem cells. 

 

Achieving the milestone we were hoping for 1 year post transplant

Enjoying a walk down the beach to celebrate

 
The sad fact is though is that Blood Caners are not a "popular" form of Cancer.  As you can see from above, although deadly and affecting many people the total about of Blood Cancer cases are but a blip on the grand total of Cancer cases and thus often go unnoticed.

So with this now being Blood Cancer Awareness month you might be wondering waht can you do?  Well as you can see from my little pictoral journey there were two key steps that allowed us to reach our stroll on the beach that without them would never have happened.

• Donating Blood
• Getting Swabbed for a bone marrow registry

If you can do one thing this month, please get out there and donate blood.  It really is what sustains us throughout our brutal treatments and keeps us alive.  And if for some reason you cannot donate blood, encourage someone else to donate.  Finally, if you haven't registered for the bone marrow registry I would encourage that as well.  It is a non-invasive procedure similar to giving blood that literally saves someone else's life.

How do I know this?  I am one of the people who's life was saved by another!  How many times in your life do get the chance to literally save another's life?
  

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