As a medical practitioner with 18 years of experience in emergency medicine, internal medicine, and mental health, Faith was always health conscious both in her diet and lifestyle.  It came as a shock to all when she was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma in November of 2014.
             After undergoing rounds of chemotherapy, blood work, and PET scans, Faith is now in remission and walked her first Light the Night Walk just one year after her diagnosis. Faith is passionate about reaching out to others and helping them through their journey. Her hope is to have the opportunity to expand access to information, mentor those throughout their treatment, and help other cancer patients to live the best life possible during and after their treatments.
            Faith is the owner of Flow Yoga in Port Richey, Florida and is also a practicing Physician Assistant in internal medicine and mental health. She lives in Port Richey with her husband, John and has one son who is a fitness writer and presenter

            At the age of 4 1/2 years old, Tyler was taken to the ER at St Joseph's Children's Hospital and within a few hours, we were told that he had leukemia. On March 6, 2015, at that moment, our little boy became a fighter and hasn't stopped fighting since.

           With another year of treatment to go, Tyler (now 6 years old) has grown to become very comfortable at the hospital. To date, he has received 3 blood transfusions, 3 platelet transfusions, 4 doses of IVIG, had 6 ER visits, 14 lumbar punctures, countless port accesses and 39 over-night hospital stays. Currently, Tyler takes most of his chemo at home (daily) with monthly visits to the hospitals.

           Tyler is a very brave boy and takes pride in teaching his little brother and sister to be brave like him, especially when they visit he doctor, too! He loves learning, playing outside on his bike and anything Star Wars. He is an amazing boy with so much love from family and friends surrounding him and helping his body get healthy again. 

         In January of 2015, Greg Robertson decided to lose 15 pounds.  He had worked out regularly for several years and took no medications.  After about 3 months he reached his goal weight, but to his surprise, he could not stop losing weight. His annual check-up indicated that he needed to see a hematologist.  He was soon diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma in September of 2015.

         After several rounds of intense chemotherapy and an autologous stem cell transplant in May of 2016, his lymphoma is in remission. Last year, his brother and sister-in-law
participated in San Francisco’s Light the Night Walk in his honor. He and his family are
so grateful that this year, he can join the walkers in Tampa to increase awareness about blood cancers and help raise money to find a cure for them. His positive outlook and spirit are a constant source of encouragement to all who he encounters.

          Greg is the Operations Director for Van Dyke Church in Lutz, Florida. He has been active in the community for many years through the Boy Scouts, various school PTA’s
and through his church.  He has been married to his college sweetheart for 35 years and they have 2 children, a son-in-law and 2 precious grandsons. 

          Frank Wadel was 37 years old, married, and had a 7 year old daughter and a 5 year old son in early 2012.  He knew something was wrong when he was so short of breath that he could not walk around his block without stopping multiple times.  After many scans and surgeries on the football-sized mass in Frank’s chest, it was discovered that he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  

         Hodgkin’s disease is one of the cancers that has a relatively high “cure” rate through chemotherapy.  Unfortunately, Frank’s lymphoma was an outlier.  After 4 different types of chemotherapy and two bone marrow transplants his disease was still present.  However, one of the many new therapies that LLS funded was immunotherapy, and after Frank was treated with that, his disease finally went into remission after a 3+-year battle.
 

         Frank is now 41 and is hoping to return to work at some point in the future.   He is able to stay home, help around the house, and is trying to get back to 100% physically.  For now, he is enjoying more than ever his family, his home, and his health.