The fight against leukemia
Friday, September 10, 2010
By: Katie Preeper

On January 23, 1997 I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

On January 23, 1997 I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I was two years old at the time and my parents prepared for the worst. The doctors told them that I had the 'good' kind of cancer. But what kind of cancer is really 'good' in the first place?
They told my parents that the survival rate was 80% and that's what gave my parents hope.
I was very understanding and good about all the medication and things that had to be done, and I guess that made it easier for my parents.
None of the medications made me sick, but one did make my hair fallout.
I had spinal taps every so often and I went through two and a half years of chemotherapy.
I don't know the exact date when we found out that I beat my cancer, but I do know that it was a very exciting day for both me and my parents. All of it was finally over.
And I'm glad that people who know people who have cancer right now can read these stories, I know that if I knew someone with cancer, that reading all the survivor stories would make me believe that that person could walk away from cancer too.
I am now 15 years old and have been completely free of cancer ever since the day we found out I won the fight.
My mom says: "Never give up; always have hope because that is what gets you through everything. Life does go on, and it really never stops. You just need to learn to deal with it one day at a time."