A Crowning Achievement

At the bottom of this article is a picture of my sister, Maggie, and my brother-in-law, Bud, taken today, December 16, 2011. Bud, many of you may recall, was diagnosed with AML (acute myelogenous leukemia) in December of 2003. His initial treatment, a brand new clinical trial, began in April, 2004, and ran through January, 2005. It failed.

Bud underwent a bone marrow transplant on April 19, 2005. The host donor remains anonymous, but he and my sister did find out the marrow came from a man in Europe. In April of 2012, they will be celebrating 7 years in remission. This is due to Bud’s incredible focus and will to live, my sister’s unrequited love and resolve, and the exemplary work and tenacity of the dedicated professionals at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas and Orlando, Florida, who saved his life.

In commemoration of Bud’s crowning achievement, Maggie made him a little blinking-light tiara, which he wore today when we ate lunch at Bahama Breeze on International Drive in Orlando. The “M” in AML used to stand for Myelogenous, but today it stands for Miracle.

I will be writing more about Bud’s journey in the near future, along with the work of St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which was brought to my attention by Simon Barrett. YES! That Simon Barrett. (See: DVD Review: Jingle Hell)

This holiday season, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and the producers of the independent film “Jingle Hell,” in conjunction with the film’s distributor Janson Media, are teaming up to raise money for kids’ cancer research.

If you would like to learn more about becoming a bone marrow donor, please visit the National Marrow Donor Program.

Maggie & Bud - December 16, 2011 - Bahama Breeze, Orlando

Lunch with Mom, Dad & Dave