Russ & Savannah Blair's medical needs

What happens when a young mother is diagnosed with cancer? She fights.

Savannah Blair, diagnosed with cancer at the age of 34, is a fighter.

We, her friends, want to fight alongside her by raising funds to financially support

future treatments and her present needs. Savannah is a precious soul who teaches us daily about courage, the power of prayer, and gentle love. Her story is miraculous, but one with new challenges–challenges that can be made easier by us helping carry the load with her.

It was during 2020- the year of covid- that Savannah first realized something was not “right” in her body. But she, the mother of three precious boys, who at the time were 7, 5, and 1, thought her exhaustion was due to being a loving, attentive mother while navigating her beloved job as a healthcare leader in the middle of a pandemic. She eventually went to visit her physician. After further testing, the first devastating blow was thrown: Savannah was not tired, in reality, she had large b-cell lymphoma.

“You have cancer” is a diagnosis none of us want to hear, but it is especially jarring when those words are spoken to a young mother whose youngest son was just beginning to walk.

Chemotherapy began. We all prayed for, cried for, and encouraged Savannah as she fought cancer and as her loving husband Russ, her boys, and her family valiantly fought alongside her with support.

We all rejoiced when, in October 2021, the scans showed no signs of cancer.

She went into the upcoming holiday season full of hope, thanksgiving, and praise that cancer was eliminated from her body.

Unfortunately, the cancer was not completely expelled. Just a few months after ringing the bell as “cancer-free”, Savannah discovered her cancer was back. This time, aggressively roaring.

Savannah told few people about the return of her cancer. She selflessly stayed quiet because she wanted her boys, who had watched their mother suffer from chemo, to have a Christmas of joy without fear. She waited until the new year to begin a new round of a different type of chemotherapy. This chemo did not work. The cancer was spreading quickly. Her team of physicians decided to try another form of chemotherapy. This too did not work.

By April of 2022, one year after her diagnosis, Savannah was deathly ill. Her team of physicians at Vanderbilt prepared Savannah and her family that she might have two-weeks left to live due to the burden of the tumor on her body.

The team at Vanderbilt cautiously proceeded with a new, experimental treatment called CAR T CELL THERAPY as a final effort to save the life of Savannah and kill the cancer. The process would involve removing the T cells from Savannah’s body, injecting them with “poison”, and then transplanting the T cells back into her body so they would multiply to attack and annihilate the cancer. It was a treatment with known risks.

In early May of 2022, the treatment began. Her prepared T-cells were implanted in body. Soon the “risks” of the treatment began to manifest. We all prayed and cried with her family as they shared the news with us that this precious mother, daughter, wife, sister, and friend was ventilated in the ICU in a coma. It was minute to minute, hour to hour, and day to day. As a result of the treatment it was discovered that Savannah had experienced neurotoxicity in her brain and body.

Friends came together to lead prayer during Little League games, friends met at a nearby football stadium to pray, food was delivered, and family and friends rallied to support her precious three boys.

But along the way the miracle occurred- Savannah left ICU cancer-free, but was now paralyzed from the waist down.

We now praise and continue to pray. For healing. For hope. For comfort.

At first, physicians thought spinal inflammation from the neurotoxicity had caused a temporary paralysis. Over the following days and weeks that turned into months, serious medical issues occurred that kept Savannah hospitalized at Vanderbilt, but eventually she was able to enter the renowned Shepherd Center in Atlanta for rehabilitation. Although the center was wonderful and full of capable health providers, little progress was made toward Savannah regaining feeling in her body.

Savannah greatly missed being with her family. From April to October she was separated from her family by extensive miles as she underwent treatment in both Nashville and Atlanta. During this time she also lost her job- a job where she had positively impacted hundreds of patients as a speech pathologist and rehabilitation director in her hometown hospital. This job termination was gut wrenching for Savannah because she loved helping people. But it also meant her insurance was eliminated.

Yet through it all- the miles away from her family, the round the clock hours of being hospitalized, the losing of her job, the loss of her mobility, and the medical struggles, Savannah has kept her quiet spirit of thanksgiving and kindness toward all with whom she comes in contact. She is an inspiration!

This elimination of insurance meant it was time for Savannah to come back home. Although filled with joy at being with her family, this presented new challenges of wheelchair accessibility, transportation, and future treatments/rehabilitation.

We PRAISE GOD that Savannah is cancer-free. This IS a story of a miracle. Of hope and healing. But it is also a story of new challenges. Our place in the story is to offer this family a financial gift. Neither Savannah nor her family have requested such assistance, but we, her friends, know that we can make a major positive impact in their lives to help pay for medical bills, future rehabilitation treatment, research options for possible innovative treatments for her condition and current mobility needs.

We want to be part of this miracle by giving funds to help improve Savannah’s quality of living.

Will you join us? Your prayers and generosity will be a declaration of your faith- that we are not giving up and this is not where her story ends, as the best is yet to come!

We also welcome stories of hope and healing- especially if you have been part of a t-cell story such as this that led to paralysis.

And please, above all, continue praying for Savannah.

Her fight is an inspiration to us all. To love harder. To care always. And to pray without ceasing.