Shanira a teen athlete, scholar that had a BMT

Shanira Adderley is a 14-year old young lady that got a bone marrow transplant a few weeks ago at Nicklaus Children's hospital.  Before Shanira's cancer diagnosis, she was a very respected student and talented athlete in her community. She played many sports and was preparing to start 9th grade, attending a private high school on a basketball scholarship. She was awarded female athlete of the year at her middle school, and athlete scholar of Broward county her 8th grade year. She's always been an honor roll student. One evening, late March 2019, she was practicing in her driveway and she got a couple of mosquito bites on her arm. Weeks later, she noticed one of the "bites" never went away. Her mother  thought maybe it was some other type of bug bite and they were waiting on it to pop. Instead, it slowly kept growing.  After several weeks and multiple scans, Shanira got a surgery done at Joe DiMaggio and got the growing lump removed. At the same time, the doctors decided to do a bone marrow biopsy. In July 2019, she was diagnosed with, Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm.  BPDCN, is a very rare cancer, especially in children, and super aggressive. Also it's very often mis-diagnosed and mis-treated. Her mom was in denial and very hesitant to tell Shanira. The oncologist at Joe DiMaggio with over 25 years of experience had never treated it before or even heard of it. In the following days more bumps popped up on her legs, arms and neck. An out-of-state doctor, who was familiar with BPDCN, called Shanira's mom to tell her she needed to start chemo before it spread to her other organs. Shanira's mom explained to her what had to be done, staying very optimist, but of course Shanira was very upset to find out she couldn't go to school or play sports. The Joe DiMaggio oncologist did some research and decided to start treating it like leukemia . Shanira went into remission right away, however, because it was high risk and high chance of it returning, the doctors told her she had to keep doing intense chemo for 6-8 months. After almost a year of intense chemo every single week, the doctors said she would still have to do chemo once a month until November 2021. Her mother decided to seek other opinions, which all lead the same recommendation that Shanira needed a bone marrow transplant. They chose Dr. Galvez, from Nicklaus Childrens Hospital, to do her transplant.  After testing her siblings, they discovered her 13-year old younger brother, and younger 12 year old sister were both a 100% HLA match. The chances of that aren't as common as most would think. There are other transplant patients who have a twin sibling and they are not a match. Both of her younger siblings were willing to donate, so they left the decision up to the doctor. He chose the brother, because females need all their bone marrow in the future if they decide to have children.  Her brother was nervous but ready to, in his words "give Shanira some of his super power". The same younger brother who used to follow Shanira around the house when they were toddlers and do whatever she told him to do, was now her hero. He donated his marrow on July 27th and Shanira started engrafting a week after they infused her, which is earlier than expected! She is on a great path to recovery. With transplant patients, it’s very common that they need platelets and blood transfusions a couple of times a week for the first month. Currently, her platelet count keeps dropping and she’s requiring a lot of infusions. Shanira's mom is raising her 4  children and taking care of all responsibilities by herself. For the past year, her work has been unstable due to all the hospital admissions while simultaneously juggling taking care of her kids at home and taking care of her daughter at the hospital alone. Currently, with COVID, the whole family has to be extremely careful because Shanira is immunocompromised. Once Shanira is discharged from the hospital, her mother needs financial assistance to help with everything. Shanira will still have to return to the hospital about two to three times a week for platelet infusions in the coming months. Also doctors appointments every week for the next year. With possible admissions again, medical bills adding up, medications, and still maintaining all regular responsibilities there is stress. Shanira's mom has never been a quitter and is ready and willing to do everything to keep providing and keeping her children safe, healthy and happy. We just want Shanira to get well and return to "normal" so she can get back to doing what she loves, going to school, and playing basketball again. Thank you !