Hi, My name is Karen and I am raising money for Meg Riley, my dear friend of 58 years, who is fighting Cancer.

This is her Story:

The Doctors were shocked that Meg was still alive when she arrived at the hospital after a 2-day drive from a vacation in Wyoming. It was July 7h; her white blood cell count was at 80,000 (extremely high) when admitted into ICU Kaiser South, 2 days later ambulanced to Kaiser Roseville Leukemia Center she started a 24/7 chemo treatment and protective recovery for another 24 days.

Her diagnosis, severe acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Good news, if she reacts well to the chemotherapy treatment and can find a bone marrow donor, she can be cured. This is her goal. Meg is a fighter and wants to live.

Meg will need to be in lockdown through her chemo and bone marrow transplant. This could be another 6 months to a year.

When she wondered what was the reason for keeping herself healthy all these years, the oncologist told her “You would have died on your trip home if you weren’t otherwise as healthy and strong as you are!”

Within days this vibrant, life loving woman lost 15 lbs., her hair, and became covered with a horrendous lichenoid drug eruption rash.

Meg is home now resting before more chemo treatments, bi-weekly blood tests, and excruciatingly painful bone marrow tests (3 so far). Because she lives alone in chemo lockdown, she only relies on a few relatives to help her who are in lockdown too.

After another 4 days of chemo treatment Meg will travel immediately to Palo Alto for a consultation at Stanford. If all of her numbers are good and Meg is healthy enough, she will be accepted to the Bone Marrow Transplant Program (BMT). As soon as she is matched Meg will be moved to Stanford for a minimum of 30 days. She will have a caretaker throughout her entire stay and recovery – a 6 months to a 1 year of follow up visits to Stanford. Her only hope for a cure and hope for a normal life is the BMT to work! Praying she can do it!!

She is worried about all of the unexpected costs that the yearlong visits will entail, lodging, gas, food, hospital, all caretakers’ expenses, and healthcare copays and deductibles.

Your generosity, prayers, and love will help Meg conquer all of these fears and challenges in order to make a complete recovery. Your gift to Meg will help eliminate her worries through this difficult time.

“A little bit can go a long way with many”. Please consider and give.” ~ Karen Faist Baird and Becky Reay Henry