My daughter is Madeline Conley. On January 7, 2014, three days after her 15th birthday, she was diagnosed with leukemia (AML/MDS). She was a high school cheerleader and cheer coach who was basically ripped out of her normal active life and immediately admitted to the hospital, where she spent the next five months. It was the scariest thing we've ever been through. She had always been very healthy and had never been in the hospital as a patient before. After her first cycle of chemotherapy, her counts would not come back up and the leukemia was still there so we started planning a bone marrow/stem cell transplant. None of her three younger siblings were a match so her hope was to find an unrelated donor on the bone marrow registry list. She was very, very lucky to have several perfect matches and we are forever grateful to the donor who saved her life! May 2, 2015 is Madi's one-year "birthday" and she is doing GREAT! She can't wait to contact her donor and thank him for saving her life!!
The Love Hope Strength bone marrow registry did two drives for Madi, and as soon as she was 100 days post-transplant, we started volunteering and working to add more people to "the list." She realizes she is incredibly fortunate to have found a donor, but there are so many that can't find a match. This is our new passion -- to spread the word about blood cancers and how easy it is to save someone's life.
We are forever grateful to her incredible doctors and nurses who became like family while she was in the hospital and solidified her decision to become a nurse when she graduates. She is also elated to be selected as an Honored Hero for LLS Light the Night and we will raise as much as we can to find a CURE.
She is SO glad to be alive to tell her story!!