I would like to bring to your attention the story of a remarkable woman who has an important message of courage and hope to share with all those who fight incurable diseases. This woman is my mother.
My mother has been valiantly fighting CML for the past 19 years. When I was ten years old my mother was diagnosed with leukaemia; there were six of us, my eldest brother was 11 years old and my youngest brother was 11 months old. At the time, medical research was not as advanced as it is today. My mother’s disease was a death sentence: it was a triphasic disease that invariably progressed to blast crisis and then.... Her local oncologist told her that she had two to four years to live. She asked the doctor if there were any exceptions, is there a one in a thousand? A one in ten thousand? A one in a million chance that she could get to see her six children grow up? The answer to all of those questions was no. Today, 19 years after her diagnosis with CML, my mother is still alive! And she was able to watch all six of her children grow up, graduate from high school and enroll in University.
To raise awareness and hope I have launched a website of inspirational stories and survivorship www.hopeforleukemia.com . In order to offer hope to other cancer patients my mother has agreed to post for free her book entitled At The Gates of Despair, The Beginning of Hope on this website! We hope that by telling our stories and compiling other stories of survivorship, we can encourage cancer patients to continue to valiantly fight their disease.
Furthermore, my mother was a great inspiration to me personally. When I was an 18 year old highschool student, I wanted to make a difference so I rollerbladed across Canada to raise money and awareness for leukaemia research in honour of my mother. On the 10-year anniversary of the completion of my skate across Canada, October 15th was declared Hope for Leukaemia Awareness Day in the Ontario Legislative Assembly and federally in the House of Commons.
It is because of my mother’s encouragement and inspiration that I am now doing research. I have kept the promise I made to my mother when she was first diagnosed: that I would fight alongside her. I am now doing my PhD in leukemia research at the University of Toronto. The halls I used to walk with my mother as patients, I walk now as a researcher.
I attend International conferences on cancer and hematology and I still get teary eyed whenever I listen to the latest clinical advancements pertaining to my mother’s disease: I think of how fortuitous I am to be at the forefront of cancer research and I wonder if the drugs tested will be available in time to help my mother. I am now living my dream, of being a cancer researcher and my mother is living her dream of being able to watch her children grow up.
Best,
Christine Ichim