One Year Post Transplant

We welcome Ronald’s mom as a guest blogger today to share her story.

Five years ago Ronald was diagnosed with leukemia just two weeks before his 6th birthday. After three years of intense chemotherapy his cancer returned just a few days before finishing treatment. The second time around, intense chemotherapy did not manage to get him into remission and he was unable to receive a bone marrow transplant. His leukemia was then considered refractory which meant no standard treatment was going to help him.

Last year, in January, he was enrolled into an experimental immunotherapy phase 1 trial called CART19. He was patient number 24. After getting very sick from the treatment, with three weeks in a medically induced coma, he totally recovered and his leukemia was gone.

In July 2014, he went for a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor from the registry. He had total body irradiation and very harsh chemotherapy prior to the transplant. He is now a year post transplant and cancer free!

We celebrated his one year post transplant with a dream cake made possible by the wonderful Icing Smiles Foundation and an amazing baker who created an amazing, unique cake for Ronald. We are blessed to have Ronald with us today after such a long fight, and we are thankful for an organization like this.

Thank you so much for all your wonderful work. We had an amazing experience, an amazing cake and baker, and a great coordinator. Everything was smooth and easy, from the application form to the cake pick up. You really put a big smile on Ronald’s face and brought a magical moment for our son’s one year post transplant celebration that we will cherish forever! Thank you for making this happen for our family.

Ronald’s dream cake was provided by Sugar Angel and past Food Network “Sugar Dome” contestant Diane Fehder, Executive Pastry Chef at The Merion in Cinnaminson, NJ. The tiered cake featured an awesome video game console topped with a wooden box of hand sculpted toys. See more of Diane’s cakes on her website.

To read more of Ronald’s story, log in to CaringBridge.