Last Friday I attended the Cowden Foundation GVHD Symposium in Cleveland, Ohio. Oncology Researchers, Physicians, Nurses, Bone Marrow Transplant Survivors and Caregivers/Families participated in this highly informative event. Both professionals and lay people sat together and learned about the most current research in the field of Graft Vs. Host Disease (GVHD), a sometimes life threatening, often debilitating condition, that occurs following a life saving Bone Marrow Transplant.
The day was one filled with mixed emotions.
I was:
Gratified to learn of new research on the horizon;
Irritated by the lack of funding available for such a rare condition;
Grief stricken by the parents who lost their child to life threatening effects of GVHD;
Emotionally charged seeing young and old survivors trying to create meaning to their “new me”,
and
Supportive of Christy, a young woman bravely preparing for her own Bone Marrow Transplant.
DON’T GIVE UP!
Thank you Cowden Family for their vision to promote GVHD Research!!!
Sometimes it is difficult to know what to say…I do however want everyone at the Steven C AYACRF to know that Ricki and I think and pray daily for our precious friends…
ROCK ON!
Tina
Thanks Tina,
We are working hard to get the word out about AYA Cancer and effects of life saving treatments like GVHD. As you well know, research that focuses on better ways to treat and cure cancer will help save our family members from this horrible disease!