Moving mountains for multiple myeloma

With my dad and brother about a month before my dad was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer you’ve probably never heard of — though you may know someone who knows someone who has it. Oddly enough, despite only less than 1 percent of Americans having the blood cancer, it seems like many folks have a first or second degree connection to the disease.

This is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell — which helps you fight infections by making antibodies that recognize and attack germs. In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells.

We first learned that my father has multiple myeloma almost a year ago, when a broken rib that wouldn’t seem to heal led to an X-Ray that found lesions. A simple biopsy told us the rest.

The good news is that with modern treatments, multiple myeloma isn’t a death sentence for most patients. While treatments vary, the standard approach is to go through chemotherapy to reduce the myeloma in the bone, followed by an intense procedure involving a bone marrow transplant.

The bad news is that every multiple myeloma patient has a different experience. For my father, it has meant going through hell and back. Last fall, his condition deteriorated quickly shortly after his diagnosis and he was in and out of the hospital. When things were finally looking to have stabilized by the end of December 2022, on New Years Day he nearly died after suffering an aortic aneurysm tied to his weakened immune system. Rushing to the hospital on the first day of 2023, I thought I was saying goodbye to him when they rushed him into emergency surgery. But somehow he held on, and a hero of a surgeon saved his life. I spent a few nights in the ICU sleeping by my dad’s bed as he lay in a medically-induced coma. 

Eventually, he came back to us, and recovered. My dad went from being barely able to walk, to driving himself to Lake Tahoe. My dad has grown stronger each day as his chemo treatments take on the myeloma in his bones. In a couple of weeks, he will go back to the hospital for a bone marrow transplant. Throughout it all, he has faced the unbearable with humor and optimism.

Ever since my dad was first diagnosed with this disease nearly a year ago, I have made it my personal mission to raise awareness and funds for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), the leading nonprofit that does life-saving research for the blood cancer. In March 2023, I flew to New York to participate in the New York City Half, and organized a fundraising event in the Big Apple. The MMRF is the reason my father has a fighting chance at living a full life with this disease. 

In September, I am heading to Tanzania as part of the Moving Mountains for Myeloma program to summit Kilimanjaro with multiple myeloma survivors, caretakers and doctors. As part of this effort, I am working to raise $14,000 for the organization. Corporate sponsors are covering the cost of the trek, so every cent I raise goes to MMRF.

Over the past several months, I have been training hard. This won’t be my first time doing what I call “extreme hiking” — in 2017, I trekked to Everest Base Camp. But each day I train for this, I think of my father and all that he has been through and it motivates me to keep going.

To reach my goal, I need your help. Any amount is highly valued, even $5. If you are interested in personally donating, you can do so here.

Also, if your organization is interested in sponsoring my climb, if you can donate $500 or more, I will personally carry a banner with your logo on it to the top of Kilimanjaro and take a picture with it and share it on LinkedIn to my ~10,000 followers.

Thank you for listening to my story, and for your support as we work to make multiple myeloma history.