Sarah Johnson
Imagine this situation: you are 14 years old, you have just started high school and your first love is playing soccer. Now imagine you fall ill after one of your soccer games. You start sleeping all day, you run fevers each night and you feel lethargic. Then imagine you are diagnosed with leukemia. This diagnosis was the last thing you expected; no one expects a cancer diagnosis. However, this situation was more than imaginary to one Peoria teenager - it was reality.
Sarah Johnson was diagnosed with leukemia in November of 2000.
“After one of my soccer games, I knew I wasn’t feeling right,” Sarah said. “It was one of the worst games I ever had. Then, after church that Sunday, I started feeling ill. After several days of not feeling better, my doctor ran blood tests.”
When the test results came in, Sarah’s mother Patricia received a phone call from the doctor while Sarah was sleeping.
“My mom woke me up and told me that the blood tests showed I had leukemia, and we had to go to the St. Jude Midwest Affiliate right away,” Sarah said. “I immediately started crying, but then I thought to myself, ‘why am I crying.’ I didn’t even understand what it all meant.”
At the St. Jude Midwest Affiliate in Peoria, Sarah underwent more testing and found that her type of leukemia, Philadelphia Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a rare type of leukemia, decreased her cure rate from 80 percent to 30 percent.
Sarah was then taken to St. Jude in Memphis, Tenn., where she received chemotherapy for the next six months.
“That December, my doctor recommended a bone marrow transplant,” Sarah said. “I am adopted from Korea, so I was immediately put on the National Marrow Donor Program list in the United States, Taiwan and China. Korea did not have the same registry.”
After several months of being on the list to receive a bone marrow transplant, three potential matches were identified for Sarah. Two of the matches were deferred, while the third match proved to be a success.
“In May of 2001, I received my bone marrow transplant,” Sarah said. “After the transplant, I received many units of blood and I received platelets twice a day.”
After the bone marrow transplant was a success, Sarah was able to reflect on the experience she had during her treatment.
“I can’t stress enough how important it is for people to donate blood,” Sarah said. “I was not expecting this to happen to me, but I am grateful the blood was there when I needed it.”
Sarah’s quality of life is much improved today. She had some lasting effects from the chemotherapy including deterioration in her knees and ankles and she still takes medication for stomach problems. However, her future is bright, and she is enjoying life.
“I am attending Milliken University in Decatur,” Sarah said. “I am studying to be a Child Life Specialist, and I hope to work at St. Jude someday.”
Sarah and her family are grateful for the blood products and bone marrow that helped Sarah recover.
“My dad, mom and sister all give blood and I helped with blood drives at school,” Sarah said. “We want people to know how important it is to donate blood and to register with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). It is especially important for minorities to enroll in the NMDP. If it hadn’t been for the one person that was able to donate to me, I wouldn’t have had anyone.”