– Approximately every 3 minutes, one person in the U.S. is diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma. These are blood and bone marrow cancers.In the Summer of 2022, Houstonian Anuj Patel was one of them. He was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The cancer is very aggressive and spreads quickly. Doctors only discovered it when Patel had trouble catching his breath doing normal things like taking a walk or riding his bike.
“I tell people it’s like learning 5 different languages in about a week’s amount of time because it’s a whole different set of terms and medicines and treatments.. and it’s just like a crash course in how quickly can you learn 5 languages,” Peri said. After months of treatment, Anuj found a match for a bone marrow transplant. The transplant in January 2023 was successful, and Anuj is now cancer-free.“To be treated that way and to know that people genuinely care about you and your family and your life, that went so far for both of us,” said Peri, who admits her family was so fortunate to have help and resources most patients don’t.