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Honored Patient
Honored Hero
Participants in The Leukemia Cup Regatta sail in honor of a local patient whose bravery in fighting blood cancer provides inspiration and motivation.
The North Texas Leukemia Cup Regatta committee is currently accepting applications for the 2012 Honored Hero position. If you are interested or would like to learn more, please contact Libby Kaczmarek at Libby.Kaczmarek@lls.org or (972) 996-5928.
The Honored Heros for the 2011North Texas chapter are Devon Kerr and John Boemer.
Devon's dad introduces his brave daughter:
Devon Kerr is a typical 8-year-old girl. She loves to read, play games, watch movies, and hang out with her friends. Devon was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) on March 1, 2010.
When she was first diagnosed, Devon's parents went to the internet for information - a good news/bad news-type of situation. It was difficult to discern what was accurate and what was not. Devon's pediatric oncologist recommended a number of reputable sites - including The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's website. LLS was generous in providing printed booklets about leukemia and what to expect in the coming days. The information proved to be critical in understanding what was happening to Devon.
Devon's parents are thankful that she is now in remission and doing well. In July 2012, after 2.5 years of treatment, she will complete the full treatment protocol. Devon has said about her leukemia diagnosis, "I never understood how important it was to raise money until, WHAM-O, I got cancer!"
Now Devon's family all understands and is proud to be part of the 2011 Leukemia Cup Regatta campaign!
John Boemer introduces himself:
I was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1998?it?s a slow moving leukemia, so the standard treatment plan is ?watch and wait,? which my first oncologist followed too long. My blood counts dropped, and I needed treatment in 2007, and my wife and I decided I should go to MD Anderson - a wise decision, because of a dangerous genetic mutation I had acquired at some point. After two different courses of the most up-to-date chemo they had (with unsatisfactory results), the doctor there recommended that I have a stem-cell transplant. This is currently the only cure for CLL, which is the most frequent blood cancer in older adults.
We prepared to move to Houston in September 2009, as they require transplant patients to spend at least four months there. A perfect match was found for me, from a 21-year-old German girl, and I received the transplant October 7, 2009.
The pre-treatment, the transplant, and early recovery were problem-free until I broke out in a rash caused by the donor cells attacking mine. It is called graft-versus-host disease. This required a long course of steroids, which weakened me quite a bit. I was recovering well from that, until gall bladder surgery in August 2010. After surgery I battled viral encephalitis and by then my graft-versus-host disease started attacking my gastro-intestinal tract.
