This is a story of Mark's ongoing battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. It's our hope that everyone who reads his story will be moved to support him by making a donation, just as others have done so already.

Hi, my name is Denise Lucido & Mark is my husband. Over the past year and a half, we have done our best to be supportive throughout his treatment of this lifelong disease. A disease that will require constant vigilance, a medication regimen & doctor visits for the rest of his life.

On 1/7/24, Mark was taken into the ER at Lakeland Regional with serious health concerns. When they took him back, his vitals & blood were taken. They started him on blood transfusions right away for his seriously low hemoglobin, WBCs, RBCs & platelet count. They were also treating him for his blood sugar issues.

He was seen by doctors for the next two days, always checking his vitals & blood counts. He was extremely sick & exhausted. All we could do was pray that God watch over Mark.

On 1/8/24, his oncologist came in & gave us the news that Mark had an advanced stage of AML & had to go to Advent Health in Orlando for treatment. On 1/9/24, Mark was admitted into the ICU department at Advent Health where he spent the next week & half in extensive medical protocols.

On 1/13 at 6 am, Mark's oxygen level was seriously low & his kidneys were going into renal failure. The staff acted quickly by intubating him, placing him on a ventilator & putting him on dialysis to prevent kidney damage.

From 1/8-2/19, he was in full chemotherapy protocol. As time progressed, Mark was breaking down physically & emotionally. He had many talks with his doctors regarding his desire to be home by his birthday & celebrate with family.

Once the doctors saw enough improvement, they decided he could go home.

On 2/20, Mark was discharged from Advent Health. The week of 2/26, we met with his oncologist & she informed us that we would be starting infusion chemotherapy on 3/25 at Hollis Cancer Center in Lakeland.

On 3/25, Mark started his 1st treatment & has been receiving monthly treatments to this present day. He will continue his treatment until the doctor is happy with his numbers. At that point, Mark will be scheduled for a bone marrow biopsy at Lakeland Regional to determine if he's reached the completion stage of infusion chemotherapy.

Those of you that know Mark well, know that he was a full-time FHSAA two-sport official for many years & a part-time employee of the Polk Co. Sheriff's office.

Dealing with cancer treatment for 1 yr. & 7 mos. to date, Mark has suffered greatly. Cancer treatment has stripped his physical strength & his athletic abilities. He also gets very sick 3 wks. every month during his treatments.

As Mark is working very hard to get back to normal, he's slowly regaining his strength back. He's accepted the reality that he won't be able to return to any of his previous lines of work.

This has been very hard on him & we would greatly appreciate any & all support that would help Mark with his challenges ahead.

All donations will go towards medical expenses & medications not covered by health insurance.

Thank you,