EVENT PREVIEW – Be The One Run®
N.C. mother celebrates daughter’s marrow transplant
When Desiree Villarreal runs in Charlotte’s first Be The One Run® on Sept. 17, she’ll fill each moment between inhale and exhale with three words: “Grow, cells, grow!”
This single mother of two will chant this short prayer for her 13-year-old daughter Gabby, who underwent a marrow transplant to treat leukemia at Duke University in May.
“Be The One Run is a great way to honor Gabby. Her strength and courage have been amazing. She’s not just my daughter – she’s my hero,” says Desiree. “This run lets the community know that there are thousands of patients each year who need the public’s help to receive a life-saving marrow transplant.”
Be The One Run is a run/walk fundraising event that gives patients with leukemia, lymphoma, and 70 other life-threatening diseases a second chance at life. Each year, 10,000 patients need a marrow transplant but have no donor match in their family. They depend on Be The Match® to help them find an unrelated donor and receive treatment.
The Charlotte Be The One Run will take place Saturday, Sept. 17, at Jetton Park. It includes a certified and timed 5k, a 1k Fun Run, and a Tot Trot. Visit www.BeTheOneRun.org to register.
Through Be The Match Foundation®, Be The One Run raises funds to support marrow transplant research, help patients with uninsured costs, and add more potential marrow donors to Be The Match Registry.
One-part prayer and one-part chant, “Grow, cells, grow!” is a common refrain heard in the patient rooms across North Carolina’s four marrow transplant centers. It speaks to the goal that each patient transplanted with a donor’s disease-free marrow cells grows those healthy cells and builds a new immune system.
Gabby was first diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia at the age of 9 and received her first marrow transplant in 2007. Her only sibling, big brother Jordan, turned out to be a marrow match – wonderful when you consider that 70 percent of patients in need of a transplant have no donor match in their family. Sadly, a checkup over the 2010 holidays revealed her cancer was back. A second transplant was her only chance.
Doctors searched Be The Match Registry® for an unrelated marrow donor and found a solid match: a cord blood unit donated by a mother after giving birth.
The second transplant has been psychologically difficult for Gabby but her determination has never wavered. In a journal entry a few days before Gabby’s second transplant, Desiree writes:
“Today I saw courage and confidence in Gabby’s eyes like I’ve never seen before. Right before they took her back for her first round of radiation, she gave me this firm look in my eye, as if to say, ‘I’m going to be OK, Mommy, don’t worry!’ Amazing! I’m so proud of her.”
Gabby is expected home in Denver, N.C., soon to finish her recovery and get on with being a teenager. Grow, cells, grow!
