Not long after I'd started running again -- I mean really running, consistently, several times per week regardless of the weather or how I felt -- I'd learned that one of my high school classmates has a daughter with leukemia. Nigam and I had lost touch after graduation, as is often the case, especially when you leave the state to go to college. We exchanged phone numbers, and had a great talk about his six-year-old daughter, Siona, and the challenges she's been facing.
She was diagnosed with T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia almost exactly two years ago. She went into remission, but not after enduring months (years) of chemo and radiation. Earlier this spring, unfortunately, she relapsed. Her leukemia returned. Treatment at this point is a little more difficult (as if it isn't already difficult enough, at four, five, six, to deal with "the stupidity of cancer"). She's continuing to receive more chemo to drive down the percentage of leukemic cells in her bone marrow -- to get her back into remission -- before receiving a cord blood transplant.
As much as I like the fall season's honored patient -- and I sincerely believe that 21-year-old Robert continues to somehow draw strength from 41-year-old Robert to get through these seven or eight months -- I'd asked Nigam if I could also run in honor of Siona. Her fight is much more urgent.
There are a lot more details about Siona here: www.sionashah.com. Please keep her in your thoughts, too, as I continue to prepare for my two marathons.
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