Help Jennifer Kick Leukemia's Butt!

Our beautiful sister Jennifer was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a life-threatening cancer of the blood and bone marrow, on June 26, 2021, at the age of 45. Jennifer suffers from a FLT-3 mutation that produces an exceptionally dangerous and aggressive form of leukemia with a low survival rate. When initially diagnosed, she spent over two months in the local hospital in Savannah receiving dozens of blood transfusions and two failed rounds of chemotherapy called “the Red Devil.” Ultimately, the local medical network was not equipped to treat such a rare and aggressive cancer which led her to seek a cure at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, under one of the nation’s premier experts in the treatment of AML. To add to the challenge of her rare and baffling condition, only one match was detected after a global search for a life-saving bone marrow donor: Her brother Winn. Winn donated his bone marrow stem cells and on March 3, 2022, Jennifer received a bone marrow transplant with stem cells at the Mayo Clinic that has had promising results so far with remission achieved according to preliminary testing. While this is joyous news and more than we dared to hope for, the costs of such innovative care can be crushing. In addition to the enormous expense of the treatments themselves, she has also incurred additional housing expenses from the requirement that transplant patients live within minutes of the Mayo Clinic for the first few months after transplant due to the intensive treatment and testing requirements and the risk of Graft Versus Host Disease.

Jennifer spent over 20 years in the hotel hospitality industry before retiring to stay home and raise her two small daughters, ages five and seven. She has always been the type of kind, generous spirit who will help anyone in need and give the shirt off her own back, loved by everyone who is fortunate enough to meet her. Jennifer enjoyed homeschooling her daughters, taking them to dance and gymnastics classes, and embarking on family outings and adventures but now is tasked with the overwhelming requirements of battling and defeating a deadly cancer. More than anything she wants to be a wonderful mom to her daughters and live long enough to see them grow up. Any donation that can be spared to help in the battle for her life would be so humbly appreciated.