This inspiring first person account is the story of parish members who got involved to save a critically ill parishioner—and how the donor turned out to be a person from another country who wished to remain anonymous!
CRYSTAL
About ten years ago, a dear friend was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphona, a cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the body’s immune system. The news was shocking on several fronts: Sue was a young fifty-year-old; she was in peak physical condition, exercising actively her entire life; and her lifestyle, including eating a healthy diet and being a non-smoker, would be considered ideal. Yet the diagnosis was irrefutable—and frightening.
After consulting with the best physicians in the country, she realized that she had very few options. The normal plan of chemotherapy and other treatments seemed to have no impact on this aggressive form of the disease. When the doctors concluded that there was a very low chance of survival unless an extremely active treatment course was taken, they recommended intense chemotherapy to kill all the white blood cells in her body, then locating a bone marrow transplant from a compatible donor to create new, healthy cells. The risk was clear—with no white blood cells in her body, any minor infection would kill her. And the chance of her body rejecting the bone marrow was extremely high…
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Crystal and Kevin Sullivan
