Support Danielle's Fight Against Leukemia

”You have cancer.” Three words no 31 year old thinks they’ll ever hear. And yet, here we are.

Late Wednesday night, my sister went into the ER seeking answers on why her previously diagnosed pneumonia wasn’t getting any better with antibiotics. The doctors decided to do some standard bloodwork and a CT to see what was going on.

To everyone’s shock, Danielle’s white blood cell count came back at 424,000 (normal is around 11,000 for reference) and they found a large mass in her chest. The ER doctors quickly made the decision to then transfer her over to MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Thursday was a long day of tests, waiting, more tests, and more waiting. We still don’t have all

of the answers. But here is what we do know:

Dani has been diagnosed with a very aggressive and rare form of Leukemia call Acute T-cell leukemia (T-ALL). Dialysis has been saving her life and she is scheduled for a pet scan to see the cells forming a lump in her chest. Once this scan comes back the doctors are confident we will start chemo and treating procedures. Her bone marrow results came back with 95% of her blood being cancerous.

Dani will be living in the hospital for the next 30 days. She will most likely have 6-8 months of ongoing chemo treatments due to the severity of this disease. She asks for your continued prayers and support through this extremely scary and unpredictable time in her life.

You don’t plan for cancer. Especially not as a healthy, former body-builder, freak-of-an-athlete, 31 year old woman.

As you can imagine, the medical bills have already started piling up and will continue to accumulate with the length of her stay and treatments thereafter. And being a single mom to a little boy, Danielle already has enough on her plate without also having to worry about how she is going to pay for her medical care while only receiving minimal pay while on medical leave from her job.

If you can, please consider contributing to my sister’s medical bills. Every little bit helps ease her worries so she can focus on maintaining a positive attitude on the road to recovery.

If you can’t help monetarily, please share her story with friends and family. You never think something like this could happen to someone close to you, and then it does.

If there’s one thing my sister wants you to take away from this experience, it’s this: Go. Live. Your. Life. Stop waiting for “one day”. Because one day your life can be turned upside down.

We will continue to post updates as we receive them. Thank you all for your support!