You guys may/may not remember couple of years back when the daughter my StB's teammate Mike's HS pal (dave) was hit with a rare (for her age) cancer and ended up going thru a clinical trial AND a stem cell transplant...her name is Serena. She BEAT the cancer...and she, Dave and her mom Polly came to St Baldrick's the following year! This past Nov 29th marked her being 4 years cancer-FREE!

But... Serena was also fighting Graft-vs-Host Disease (GVHD) - a complication from her transplant - which was causing severe bouts of pneumonia and reduced lung function going back to late 2024. It got so bad over a full year that the damage it was doing to her lungs got to the point that was going to be permanent and non-survivable. She spent most of Q4 2025 hospitalized.

Dave hadn't let all of us know all this until just after Christmas when he announced that Serena was at Duke and had been put on the wait list for a double lung transplant. 

Last week, on Jan 28 (my birthday), Serena received two lungs and the chance (yet again) to live her life - as another family mourned the loss of their loved one.


So many advancements in cancer treatment have produced SO many success stories, but there is still so many more advancements that are needed to beat that SOB without triggering potential and ALSO life-threating complications!

So I keep doing this. 

God Bless you for your efforts. I am tired of friends gone too soon. Thinking of you 4Sure.

Your annual efforts are admired and applauded.  I lost a college friend, that I've not seen in 25 yrs, to cancer last weekend.  51yrs old with 4 kids, oldest a freshman at Auburn.  RIP Scott McRae.

(02-07-2026, 12:13 AM)Replying to GriffWoody Your annual efforts are admired and applauded.  I lost a college friend, that I've not seen in 25 yrs, to cancer last weekend.  51yrs old with 4 kids, oldest a freshman at Auburn.  RIP Scott McRae.

way too young obviously, sorry for your loss

That graft vs host disease is brutal.  Glad to hear she's still hanging in there.