Help Ayyam Kick Cancer's Butt

Hello. If you have landed here, you clearly know and love Ayyam. She has touched your life as a friend, classmate, coworker, daughter, sister, and doting auntie. The first in her family to attend college, she busted her tail to gain acceptance to the South Texas Doctoral Bridge Program at Texas State University. She started her Masters of Biochemistry program in Summer 2020, in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Life has thrown a few wild curveballs at Ayyam this past year. She was diagnosed with moderate Aplastic Anemia during her first semester of grad school. Aplastic Anemia is a rare bone marrow disease that requires blood transfusions and ATG immunosuppressive therapy for treatment. Unfortunately, the hits kept on coming. In May, Ayyam was diagnosed with Stage 1 Hodkin's Lymphoma. She has undergone several rounds of chemotherapy to fight this cancer in her body.

Impressively, Ayyam has battled fatigue, misdiagnoses, and pain to maintain a perfect 4.0 in her Biochemistry program.  She also successfully passed her first year review for her research project. Her absolute tenacity in the face of such difficulty is awe inspiring. Ayyam is unwavering in her determination to continue on to her PhD and contribute to lifesaving research. Her life mission is to better human health through the application of science.

Cancer sucks. And chemo is damn expensive. Please consider helping if you can.