Eileen's Cancer Treatment Fund

Hi everybody,

My name is Leah and I’m starting this fundraiser for my beautiful mom, Eileen Kelley, who is gearing up for her fourth battle with cancer. I’ll share a little bit about her story…

After kicking breast cancer’s ass twice, my mom was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, which is a rare form of blood cancer that disrupts the body’s production of blood. In 2012, she underwent her first stem cell transplant in hopes of curing this myeloproliferative disorder. My family and I couldn’t be more grateful to my Uncle Mike (her donor at the time), Dr. Joseph Antin, and his incredible medical team at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, for saving her life ten years ago. After a three-month hospital stay with quite a few complications, my mom’s remarkable strength pulled her through!

For the past ten years, she has lived a relatively normal and healthy life, but unfortunately, her fight isn’t over yet - She is now facing a recurrence of the myelofibrosis and in about 3 weeks, she’ll be admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital to start the transplantation process over again (this time with an amazing anonymous donor). The transplant involves chemotherapy to bring her current immune system down to 0, followed by an infusion of donor stem cells to rebuild a new immune system from scratch. Once the transplant is completed, she’ll be in isolation for up to a year as her new immune system builds itself up. It is a grueling process for my mom but unfortunately, it’s the only potential cure for her disorder. She is the bravest woman I know and has never turned down a fight like this!

As we get closer to my mom’s admission date to BWH, the financial stress on our family has risen. If you are able to donate anything, we would be so appreciative, and it would help to alleviate some of the stress that we’re facing. Please know that any funds donated will go directly to my parents to help with things like daily transportation to and from the hospital, possible lodging accommodations and pet care services (we hope!), oral surgery expenses that are needed to proceed with the transplant, various other medical bills, and some of our day-to-day expenses.

If you aren’t able to donate, no worries - You can also help by sharing this post with friends and family, joining the stem cell donor registry at bethematch.org (getting tested is as easy as a mouth swab!), or just sending us some strength and positivity! We truly appreciate all the love during this rollercoaster. Thank you so much.