Gabe’s Story

To know Gabe is to love Gabe! He is so many things….happy, comical, intelligent, spiritual, kind, mature, gifted, kind-hearted, talented and brave. He is a soccer player, an artist, a musician and an excellent student. And now he is a cancer survivor.

In September of 2009, as a 10th grader, Gabe began running a low grade fever and feeling very tired. The symptoms continued for twelve days and although his blood work looked good, we knew something wasn’t right. Gabe’s doctor ordered a chest x-ray, which led to a CT scan and the almost immediate diagnosis of a lymphoma. He was referred to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN where the diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was confirmed.

Gabe completed chemotherapy and radiation and was declared “disease free” in February of 2010. But only five months later the disease was back! The doctors determined that the best course of treatment now for curing Gabe was extensive chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. In order to do the transplant, we would need a donor.

Adding to our stress and worry was discovering that no one in our family was a match for Gabe, nor were there any matches in the national registry. We worried and prayed and recruited everyone we knew to get registered. While there are still no perfect matches in the U.S. registry, it appears that a match may have been found from an international source. We are praying this works out for Gabe but we are still pleading with everyone we know to get registered to become a bone marrow donor. The relief we feel to know that our son may have a chance at a cure is impossible to put into words. We want every patient or parent of a patient in this situation to have that same kind of hope. You can give someone a second chance at life by completing the simple process of getting registered with the Be the Match organization. It’s simple, it’s free and you could save someone’s life.

With gratitude,
Jeff and Jennie Hilliard