Stories of Hope
The day you were diagnosed, you became a survivor. The day your loved one is diagnosed, you become a survivor too. These stories provide hope and inspiration, role models and real life experiences for other patients and families. Whether you are a patient, family member or friend, these poignant stories are filled with anecdotes that you'll find helpful as you learn more about your or your loved one's disease. Each story provides insight and motivation for bravery and optimism as you and your loved ones celebrate being a survivor!
You'll also find stories of volunteers who are spreading awareness and raising funds for AA&MDSIF. Many are patients, family members and friends who have been touched in some way by a bone marrow failure disease.
Would you like to share your story? Email us at mystory@aamds.org or call Mike Breuer at (301) 279-7202 x111 and he'll be glad to give you more information.
Visit this page regularly for new stories, many featured in our monthly eInsider, that will touch your heart, give you comfort, and deepen your determination to fight these diseases.
The beginning
My journey began with four little words, “Let’s get a
CBC.” At the time, I lived in Astoria,
Oregon with my husband, a member of the US Coast Guard. I worked as an occupational therapist, played
volleyball three days a week, enjoyed volunteering as a...
Each year,
AA&MDSIF patient and family conferences attract hundreds of patients and families
from across the country to hear from medical experts, get information on living
well with aplastic anemia, MDS or PNH, and make personal connections by meeting
others just like...
Each year,
AA&MDSIF patient and family conferences attract hundreds of patients and families
from across the country to hear from medical experts, get information on living
well with aplastic anemia, MDS or PNH, and make personal connections by meeting
others just like...
The positive attitudes his friends Pascale (Olivia)
Burmester and her husband Niklas maintain despite their trials and tribulations
are his main inspiration for trying to raise funds for AA&MDSIF and bring
awareness to the cause. Pascale will start her bone marrow transplant...
How It Began
I was four years old when I was diagnosed
with aplastic anemia in 1988. It is hard for me to remember everything that
happened because I was so young. I remember my mom calling 911 when I was six
because I got a nosebleed and was coughing up blood. That was when we...
It has been two-and-a-half years since being diagnosed with aplastic anemia. In September 2010, my husband, Scott, and I moved home to Vancouver, British Columbia from Calgary, Alberta where we had been living for the previous three years. I was six months pregnant and so...
The “Big Cheese” is
the winner of the macaroni and cheese bake-off event, “2nd Annual sMAC
Down, organized by AA&MDSIF volunteer Kim Fernandes-Huff. And Kim doesn’t
just organize the sMAC Down event for AA&MDSIF in support of the Michael
Fernandes Research Fund, she also...
In Kate's words:
I retired from Dun & Bradstreet, after 35 years of
working all over the US and Europe as a business analyst and Vice President of
Operations and Data Acquisition. I was
living the life I had always aspired to --.traveling, volunteering for a number
of...
In
August 1995, my family and I moved from the city of Memphis, Tennessee
to the small town of Tifton, Georgia for a job promotion, which I was very
excited about. After working ten hour days in planning meetings, I was always extremely
tired at the end of the day. I...
I got involved with Hope, Steps and a Cure after
observing the first walk in Los Angeles in January 2010. I was
attending the Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra’s Celebrity Soccer Challenge at the
Home Depot Center. My cousin Stephanie
Hamm, who organized that walk...
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