Help Journey Rose defeat MDS, a rare blood cancer

Journey Rose is a nine year old from Maine. She has a big sister and two younger brothers. She loves painting, swimming, trampolining and crafts. She is spunky, sweet and strong. She has also been battling a rare blood cancer for almost two years.

Journey's cancer is called Myelodisplastic Syndrome (MDS) and it is proving very resistant to treatment. She had a bone marrow transplant in April 2021 at Boston Children’s Hospital but relapsed in September. Several more rounds of chemo still didn’t cure it, so she was sent to St Jude in Tennessee for a clinical trial and another transplant in March of this year, where she spent more than four months in treatment. Unfortunately, that transplant also didn’t cure her disease and she again relapsed in September of this year. Her oncology team then found another place that may be able to help.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in Manhattan, New York is the only hospital in the nation that is doing specialized bone marrow transplants with stem cells from expanded umbilical cord blood. Journey is currently being given aggressive chemo to lower her disease burden back home in Maine, and will be transferred to New York next month for transplant number three.

Journey's oncology team is saying it will take a miracle to cure her. Her family is praying that this third transplant will be the miracle for which they’ve waited.

The strain on Journey and her family at this time is overwhelming. They’ve exhausted most of their resources. The prior interstate travel and extended treatments have fragmented the family and taken a harmful toll on all involved. The costs of medical care, travel, food, and housing in New York City, as well as the regular bills at home, will pile up quickly. Please donate today and help alleviate some of their financial burden while Journey beats all the odds and gets better.