Excellent News!

I received this wonderful email from my dear friend Amye this morning:

Dear friends,

I have absolutely wonderful news to report to you all! As many of you know, my older brother Jimmy was diagnosed with a rare and ravaging form of leukemia (CML) a few years ago. He’s been through almost every treatment available (with the exception of a bone marrow transplant) with no success. Last year he started an experimental treatment, his last option before the transplant procedure, at John Hopkins in Philadelphia. I’m getting weepy as I write this, but we just got the news yesterday (on his birthday, no less) that Jimmy’s quarterly test results report no cancer cells in his body. He is cancer free! This is a step better than remission because his body shows no cancer cells or remaining cancer proteins in his blood or marrow! We are not totally out of the dark yet, and he will always be ‘in treatment’ for his disease, though a few more years of negative test results will put us all at ease. But that’s the future, and right now, I am so happy for my brother and his wife Kim and daughter Madison. On a grander scale, Jimmy’s cancer-free status is a major step forward in the treatment of leukemia for all those who suffer from the disease, and hopefully this drug will be available to others very soon because of great results like my brother’s. I feel like I have received the best news in the entire world, and I really wanted to share it with you as you have all been a major support to me as my family deals with Jimmy’s disease. It really is a glorious day!

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support!

XOXO ~ Amye

This is truly thrilling news for Amye and her family. The good deeds of the doctors and scientists who continue to work so nobly to eradicate diseases like Jimmy's are truly inspiring.

What Amye doesn't mention in her email is that she has changed her whole lifestyle in the last several years due to her commitment to be Jimmy's bone marrow donor if he ever needs her to be. This included difficult achievements like quitting smoking and changing her eating habits - both of which were very hard struggles for her, but are things which she did and continues to do out of love for her brother and his family. Because of this and many other reasons, Amye is one of my personal heroes. I'm so grateful to have her as a friend.

It doesn't rank quite up there with donating bone marrow, but she is also an incredibly gifted artist and she is helping me with my wedding invitations. So that's another good deed.

Hurray! for Amye and the doctors at Johns Hopkins!