9 In A Million

I'm currently battling Leukemia with an upcoming stem cell transplant. If you know a thing or two about cancer treatment then you know that it is astronomically expensive. I'm not one to normally ask for handouts, but in this instance every little bit helps. My medical bills are already incredibly expensive and with no guarantee of insurance helping at all, the stem cell transplant will cost upwards of $300k. If you can find it in your heart to help out at all it would be greatly appreciated. If not, please consider sharing my story with everyone that you can. Everything helps! Here is my story.

Why nine in a million?

Pretty simple really. The chances of me getting Leukemia at 22 are roughly 0.0009% for those not so good with numbers, that’s nine ten thousandths of one percent… those are pretty insane odds if you ask me. Anyhow, what that means is that 9 out of every 1,000,000 people my age will get this disease, thus nine in a million.

I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia on August 20, 2015. My diagnosis came as a shock to me. The month leading up to it I was plagued with extreme fatigue among other symptoms such as muscle pain, nausea, and sore throats. Being a stubborn 22 year old I didn’t think I needed to go to the doctor. I figured it would go away eventually. After a month I finally caved and went to the University med clinic. It was there that a blood test revealed my extremely low blood counts. I was admitted to the hospital later that afternoon where I remained for 3 days until my diagnosis.

At 22 the last thing you expect is to be told you have cancer. It’s just not supposed to happen. I’m generally a pretty realistic person when it comes to the chances of things happening but nine ten-thousandths of one percent is a statistic even I struggle to wrap my head around.


My condition was urgent. After my diagnosis I had only the weekend to sammy goodbye’s before flying to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. I arrived at the clinic on August 24th and was admitted to the hospital after several days of testing on the 28th. that hospital is where I would remain for the next month as I went through treatment.


I have so far undergone two rounds of induction chemotherapy. My first week of chemo proved to be unsuccessful in putting my leukemia into remission. Although many of my marrow cells were killed, 50% of them remained cancerous. I then underwent a second round of chemotherapy, this time much more intense than the first. I was released to outpatient September 27th and am scheduled to find out at the end of the week if this last round of chemo was successful. I will keep the campaign updated as I have more information.

Thank you for reading my campaign story and thank you for any donation! Please consider sharing it with everyone you can!

For more detailed info I'd encourage you to follow along with my journey on my blog: nineinamillion.com