From Our Sister Blog: Raising Hodgkin's Lymphoma Awareness Because It Matters

For over two years, we as a family, witnessed what our sister endured battling an advanced form of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (aka Hodgkin’s Disease). The unexpected journey started in the spring of 2005 when our sister was diagnosed with this rare but deemed curable cancer during a routine check-up for flu-like symptoms. After our sister’s diagnosis, many in the medical field as well as cancer patients commented that Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was the “good” cancer to get if you had to choose a cancer.

Unfortunately, it was not the “good cancer” and the road to remission was a bumpy one to say the least. It took a rare syngeneic stem cell transplant and almost two years of back-to-back high dose chemotherapy treatment and radiation therapy to bring our sister into remission status. As a family, we experienced this two-year challenging journey right along our sister. This sobering experience inspired us to do something tangible in our sister’s honor and in honor of other cancer warriors and survivors to help promote worldwide awareness for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer wrongly deemed the “good cancer”.

We launched Hope & Dreams Cancer Awareness T-Shirt Shop in 2006 to raise awareness and support for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and General Lymphoma/Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas. The store first opened with an assortment of Lymphoma awareness t-shirt designs (Hodgkin’s and Non-Hodgkin’s) and later expanded to other cancer awareness merchandise.

Today, our sister is in remission and working on recovering from the harsh treatments. We are grateful to God that she has been given a second opportunity to fulfill her hopes and dreams — cancer free. Many have asked how our sister got through two years of back-to-back cancer treatment for aggressive Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, her answer is: determination, hope and most of all faith.