Regan Schmidt's Leukemia Fight

Regan Schmidt, was diagnosed with CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia) when she was twelve. Basically, Regan’s body overproduces white blood cells; her bone marrow contains what is called the Philadelphia chromosome that leads to this overproduction. My family was told that a bone marrow transplant was the only cure. Regan went in for her first transplant in August of 1998. My mother stayed with her the whole time, sleeping on a pull out chair in her hospital room. My mother watched as Regan came close to death, a bone marrow transplant is a grueling procedure to undergo, the patient is given enough chemotherapy and radiation to destroy her bone marrow, then given new marrow from a donor. In Regan’s case, they used blood from a baby’s umbilical cord. After having her blood system wiped out, Regan turned thirteen in the hospital and was told that the transplant had failed. She was given her own diseased marrow back and we thought that death was a certainty. Make A Wish foundation came in and gave Regan her final wish. By the grace of God, Regan was put into a clinical trial for a new drug, Gleevec. The trial was not intended to include children however, one of Regan’s doctors pleaded for her to be included, letting the drug manufacturer know that this was her last hope. Her body was too weak to undergo another transplant. The Gleevec worked, it was able to control Regan’s leukemia, and keep it in the chronic phase. During this time Regan graduated from high school, completed a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Texas and became an Engineering Supervisor in Corpus Christi.

Unfortunately Regan’s leukemia has come roaring back. CML has three phases, chronic, accelerated and blast crisis. Gleevec was able to keep her out of the accelerated and blast phases for sixteen years. We
learned in July of this year that Regan’s leukemia had progressed, she was in blast crisis. Regan’s doctors were able to get the blast crisis under control enough for Regan to undergo another bone marrow transplant. At this point a transplant is her only hope, the blast crisis phase of CML is uncontrollable with any kind of medication or chemotherapy.

Regan has been unable to work since July and as such her medical bills are piling up. A bone marrow transplant is harrowing procedure, and it’s also very expensive. While Regan has always had health insurance, the out of pocket costs for her care over the years have been hundreds of thousands of dollars, roughly $250,000. Anything that you can give would help our family immensely during this terrible time. Thank you.