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Honored Patients
2012 Light The Night Honored Heroes
Did you know that more than 1,012,000 Americans are currently fighting blood cancer? Our 2012 Light The Night Honored Heroes are just a few of the many patients supported by LLS in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Your participation in the Light The Night Walks will help Kimie, Adrian, Dianne and all blood cancer patients and survivors receive informational resources, support and financial aid in addition to giving them hope for a cure. Thank you!
Kimie Metcalf
Kimie has been challenged since birth. She is the surviving identical twin of a preterm pregnancy. She was born @ 27 weeks and weighted 2lbs14oz. She spent 65 days in the NICU. She's battled and survived a hole in her heart, a grade lll brain bleed, multiple eye surgeries, is legally blind in her right eye and has total body involvement Cerebral Palsy (CP). At the age of 4, just as Kimie?s health was stabilizing and she was getting ready to enter kindergarten, her family learned that she has a rare subtype of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) called AF4/MLL. her type of ALL is usually seen in infants and there was no treatment protocol for a child her age. The doctors put Kimie on a special study and tried aggressive treatments, adjusting them as her body reacted. Blessedly, Kimie went into remission within a month and has not had any life-threatening complications. She will continue on her maintenance therapy for another 18 months. Each day, Kimie lives life to the fullest. She enjoys getting out there and making a difference for other cancer patients. Her family prays and hopes for the best at all times and Kimie keeps everyone smiling every single day.
Adrian Avelar
My name is Adrian Avelar and I am 11 years old. On my very first day of summer vacation, I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Chemotherapy started right away and over the course of 10 months, I had many stays in the hospital. I have been in remission since June 2010! I have been home schooled for the entire school year and I really miss my friends. I am an aspiring chef and a sports nut. I still have a couple years of chemo to go, but I am grateful to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for all their research. That research has helped the doctors decide what the best cancer treatments are. My family participated in their first Light The Night Walk last October - Light The Night was an amazing experience and they helped raise a lot of money. Even my elementary school got involved by participating in Pennies for Patients. They did it in my honor!! They raised over two thousand dollars!! Thank you LLS for all you have done for me and kids like me.
I first heard the words ?you have blood cancer? in July, 2007. I was 43 years old and I had recently started seeing someone very special. After two weeks in the hospital I was diagnosed with not one but two aggressive forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma ? it was stage 4 and there is no stage 5. When we received the diagnosis, I suggested to Chuck that he should run for the hills. He responded by saying "When God gives you a gift, you don?t give it back." And there, at my hospital bedside, he asked me to marry him. Fast forward to the fall of 2011: Chuck and I have been married for three wonderful years, I am mom to his two great kids, and I?m working with amazing people in my role as Deputy Executive Director for LLS. But, after 4 years in remission, I heard the dreaded words: ?your cancer is back?. This time, I hadn?t felt sick at all ? I was even training for the Tinker Bell Half Marathon with LLS?s Team In Training! My only real chance to get back in remission was a stem cell transplant which I completed in February, 2012. Also, I am participating in a clinical trial that combines the radio-immunotherapy drug Zevalin with the standard high-dose chemo of the transplant. I?m told by my doctors that my original 4-year remission was remarkable in light of the aggressiveness of my lymphoma and that it may be harder to achieve that long of a remission this time around. I intend to prove them wrong ? I have important work to do.
Dianne Callahan
Erica Werdel Lacey - Memorial Honoree
On a cold, dark, early morning in December 2011, Erica Werdel Lacey passed away, losing her battle with lymphoma at 30 years young. A woman so full of life's passions - God, family, friends - Erica was diagnosed with lymphoma three weeks before her wedding to David. 817 ? that?s how many days they got to spend together as husband and wife. 47 ? that?s how many chemo treatments she endured. Add in another 20 radiation treatments and you have yourself one super brave, courageous, strong warrior of a woman. She fought to the very end, to the last breath. Near the end she said that she would endure countless more chemo treatments if it meant more time. 30 ? the years of Erica?s life. Not fair! Too young! We can either complain that it was too short, or we can rejoice that 30 years was more than 29, more than 28 etc. If you choose to complain, that is your choice, but be fair warned, you will probably hear Erica whispering in your ear, ?Stop complaining, I never did. Move on and make the most of your time.?
1 ? There was only one Erica. And she was one of a kind.
