A Fellow Graduate
As we travel the path from diagnosis to treatment - and even beyond - it is so encouraging to hear of others who have gone before us and regained healthy lives. For that reason, I envisioned writing a piece for all of you which I would call "The Faces of RIT." I wanted to share individual stories with photos of the people who shared them. Several people agreed and sent me their stories, but due to legal issues, I can't post them in exactly the format I had hoped to.
In the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing three excellent stories minus the photos but I'll have to omit the last names of two people - but there is one name I can use because you could find it yourself on the Internet if you looked.
Jamie Reno, an award-winning journalist with Newsweek magazine and also an acclaimed singer-songwriter, was diagnosed with Stage IV follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1996. He went through a very difficult chemotherapy treatment in early 1997, and when the cancer returned in 1999, instead of doing another chemo regime, as his oncologist recommended, he chose to participate in a clinical trial of a new cancer drug called Bexxar. Jamie has been in remission ever since.
"I'm pretty confident that if I had gone ahead with another chemo treatment and not done the radioimmunotherapy, I would not be alive today," says Jamie, who could have simply regained his health and closed the door on cancer. Instead, he attaches all his national music projects to lymphoma cancer and awareness causes.
Additionally, Jamie is currently writing "Hope Begins In The Dark," a book in which he is profiling 50 survivors of various types of non-Hodgkin's and Hodgkin's lymphoma to be published in August 2007. Jamie's website is www.jamiereno.com.
I thank Jamie for allowing me to share his story with all of you and for his passion in reaching out to those who are touched by our common enemy. Jamie's work provides comfort, guidance and - most especially - hope. And there are plenty of reasons for hope - new and better treatments and people like Jamie who have been healthy for 8 years and longer.
Wishing all of you a happy, hopeful day,
Betsy