Ashlee Mack
Ashlee Mack wears a bracelet around her wrist that says hope. During her battle with Leukemia, hope is something she has always carried.
When Ashlee was 16 years old, she was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. She had a sore throat and a fever so her mom, Diane, took her to urgent care. She thought Ashlee had come down with mononucleosis, but a blood test showed her white cells were cancerous.
"When they told me it was cancer, I was shocked," Ashlee said. "I just started crying. Your life flashes before your eyes. You are terrified."
Ashlee quickly began chemotherapy treatments. The chemotherapy destroyed her bone marrow, which curbed the cancer, but meant she needed transfusions of red cells, platelets and plasma. All together, she received 214 units of platelets, 64 units of red cells and 31 units of plasma.
After months of complicated treatments, being put on a heart-lung machine after respiratory failure and four rounds of chemotherapy, Ashlee is in remission and is back to being a typical teenager. She competes on her High School's swim team, manages the boys' basketball team, volunteers with her church and hangs out with her friends. Ashlee and her family are thankful for the donations, which have given her these opportunities in life.
"If it wasn't for everybody giving blood, it may not have been so easy for the doctors to give Ashlee what she needed," Diane said. "For parents like us, because of what other people have done, our kids are with us today."