Some of you may know that my father-in-law, Elliot Schiller, is a survivor of Multiple Myeloma. He suffered extremely bad back pain throughout 2018, and spent a ton of time getting tested and diagnosed with a lot of other things. Through it all, he still drove himself and my mother-in-law, Susy, to our house once a week to visit help out with G when she was under a year old. They even took our nephews and our family to Disney during the summer. As a new mom, these visits were invaluable to me. I was able to have some time off while they took care of G and have a few moments to myself. And El did this with enormous pain. 

When the doctors finally figured out that it was multiple myeloma in 2019, we were all devastated. When you hear the word "cancer", it's not a death sentence anymore, but it does involve a ton of treatment, good doctors, the best in medicine, and above all, hope and luck. We hoped. We lucked out. El got the best of care, and they started him on chemo  right away, and then booked him for a stem cell transplant of his own cells. Evan and I were able to go to the hospital when they told us the information about the transplant, about where Susy would stay, about how long he would stay. 

It was supposed to be weeks and maybe even months in the hospital. But El was in great physical condition, and I believe his humour, and his ability to be both pragmatic and hopeful about his situation made his stay much shorter than expected. He was out in about two weeks, and back at home, where he then stayed in isolation for about a month before we were allowed to visit. 

El has been in remission for three years now, but he doesn't take it for granted. Every birthday, holiday, any kind of gifting time, he always, always asks for donations to the hospital he stayed at, the Juravinski Cancer Center at Hamilton Health Sciences, or Myeloma Canada. He has mentored others going through stem cell transplants, and offered so much support to others who have had this diagnosis.

Last year, we participated in the Myeloma March in Mississauga to help raise funds for research into battling this disease. We raised the most of all the teams in Mississauga, and we are hoping to beat that this year. If you feel inclined, please consider donating. We’ll be walking a 5 km on Sat.

By making a donation to me, you are helping to fund clinical research and to support advocacy for accelerated access to game-changing therapies for Canadian myeloma patients.

Please make a donation today and help me to reach my fundraising goal!