Mother of 5 Receives Her Bone Marrow Transplant

REMOVING BARRIERS – ABBY’S STORY

Cleveland, Ohio

Abby is a mother of five. Her children are aged 19, 16, 5, 4, and 2. March 7th was her daughter’s 16th birthday. It was also the day Abby was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

Abby recently received her bone marrow transplant at the Cleveland Clinic.

Her transplant was autologous, which means she didn’t need a donor. They remove and store healthy blood stem cells from the patient, destroy the diseased bone marrow with high doses of chemotherapy, and return the stored stem cells to replace the damaged bone marrow. 

Removing Barriers

Abby’s main barrier was transportation. She needed to visit the hospital every day to remove and store at least two million stem cells. This process was followed by intense chemotherapy treatments leading up to her transplant.

She has been out of work since her diagnosis. Her husband also had to take time off from work while she was in treatment. The hospital requires a 24-hour caregiver for at least 8 weeks; 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after the transplant. 

The Family Medical Leave Act protects your job, but FMLA is unpaid, so the family was without income.

They were having difficulty affording travel. Their daily trip was an hour each way to the Cleveland Clinic to prepare for her bone marrow transplant. The cost of gas was a barrier.

The Icla da Silva Foundation removed her barrier with a grant for gas. 

When we interviewed Abby before her transplant, we offered additional support.

Please watch her reaction:

All bone marrow transplants have one thing in common, the recovery process takes a long time. It could be a year until her immune system recovers.

Due to the generosity of our donors, we were able to provide the Ramos family with an additional grant to help with utilities and meals during Abby’s follow-up treatment.

“How Am I Supposed to Do This?”

We asked Abby about the impact we have made.

She told us, “if someone could take away just one thing off the list of things to worry about while I go through my cancer treatment, that would mean the world to me. The Icla da Silva Foundation did that for me. You gave me one less sleepless night, one more hour I get to spend with my kids without worrying about making this happen, one less guilt trip because I couldn’t do this on my own.” – Abby Ramos

We wish Abby a full recovery.

You Can Help

Please consider a donation so we can help more patients like Abby. 

Cancer puts the patient in a life-threatening situation. Preparing for and receiving a bone marrow or cord blood transplant presents barriers that are not often recognized. 

The goal of the Icla da Silva Foundation is to remove some of those barriers so patients can focus on their treatment.

Your gift will help us remove more barriers.

In Abby’s words, “…I couldn’t do this on my own.”

PLEASE DONATE

Written by: Bret Itskowitch