Carolina Cancer Services
Thrive and Survive
formerly known as Davidson County Cancer Services, Inc.
When I first met former First Lady Barbara Bush, she said, "Honey, I know what you're going through." And you know what? She did. Like me, Barbara Bush had been the mother of a little girl who had cancer. And like me, her daughter died.
My daughter, Brandy, was five when she started having high fevers, bone pain, bruising and was pale in color. I took her to the doctor, thinking it was the flu. How wrong I was. I remember as if it were yesterday - standing in the hospital corridor as a doctor that I had only met the day before told me my beautiful little girl had "A.L.L. - acute lymphocytic leukemia."
Five years later, after three years of chemo and a four-year remission, my daughter relapsed four times before having an autologous bone marrow transplant. (She was her own donor. Her marrow was cleaned with monoclonal antibodies and busulphan and re-inserted into her body in hopes it would regenerate without any cancer cells.)
Brandy fought a good fight, but on Mother's Day, my 10-year-old daughter died. The good that came out of my daughter's life - and death - was this: I befriended Congressman C.W. "Bill" Young from Florida. There, on my daughter's hospital bed, Congressman Young had asked me if there was anything he could do. I told him my daughter needed a bone marrow transplant and there was no other family member who matched. At the time there was no public registry, only one under the auspicies of the NAVY. Congressman Young, inspired by my daughter, took the issue to Congress and got the funding for the National Bone Marrow Transplant Registry, later called "LIfesavers." I still have the flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol that honored Brandy's life and her inspiration that started the BMT Registry. Though I still miss my daughter terribly each and every day, I am so thankful for her short life, long remembered.
Caron Myers
Caron Myers is also a former TV reporter and wife of NASCAR legend and Sirius Radio Host Danny "Chocolate" Myers. The couple lives on High Rock Lake with daughter Alexi and two dogs named Poochie and Diesel.
