Meet Courtney Chase.
Her experience with cancer
began in 2007,
at four-and-a-half years old
3/23/2022
"Sitting in our living room, my dad felt a large lump behind my ear while he brushed my hair. As I had also been experiencing symptoms of pneumonia, my parents brought me to my pediatrician’s office. After running blood tests, they rushed me to the hospital due to abnormal results. The hospital ran numerous tests— more blood work, X-ray scans, etc.— before they sat us down to tell us the news: I had blood cancer. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).
A few months into treatment, a complication arose; a fatal one. One of my medications had a very rare side effect—Veno-Occlusive Disorder, a liver disease that shuts down the body's organs—and I was one of the few who got it. The diagnosis was a death sentence; I was given five days to live.
Two days later, we started my treatment plan and I began chemotherapy. I was terrified. I kept being poked and prodded by doctors while other people looked at me with sad, sympathetic eyes. I couldn't comprehend what was happening to me but I knew it wasn't good. My mom cried every day and my dad coped by trying to fix every little problem he could find because he knew he couldn't fix me.
There was an experimental drug that had not been used in America, similar to those the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) support and create, and we were desperate to try anything. The doctors put me in a medically induced coma for 14 days while they administered the drug and, miraculously, I survived. My treatment continued over the next two years and I fought for my life.
Unlike so many others, I beat cancer."
Courtney is no stranger to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In 2014-2015 she volunteered as a spokesperson for Pennies for Patients, a program designed to engage all students with cancer awareness; in 2018 was named Girl of the Year; in 2019 ran as Student of the Year, raising money for blood cancer research. Today, Courtney is a healthy 19-year old college student, majoring in business finance, and minoring in psychology and theology at Bethel University.
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