Wayne's Story

If you don’t already know me, my name is Wayne Glynn jr, AKA “Dwayne”.  I am writing this from the New England Medical Center, where I have just had a Stem Cell Transplant (this used to be called Bone Marrow Transplant) on April 18, 2007.  This involved high dose of chemotherapy and an infusion of my own previously harvested blood stem cells. I am doing remarkably well.  I should be in the hospital for three to four weeks recovering from this procedure. This treatment should further solidify my current state of remission. 

I am writing to share my story, and to ask for your help and heart.  I do not need anything personally, other than your consideration for others.  Myeloma is the second most common blood cancer.  This year, over 15,000 Americans will be diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma and 11,200 will die of the disease.  This blood cancer once - even recently – came with a life expectancy of “three to five years”.  Death usually results from a breakdown of the bones, kidney failure, and from infection as a result of a compromised immune system. 

Last year, at the age of 38, just in time for Christmas, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma.  Tragically this is the same disease that had just stolen the life of my grandmother, months before.

I miss my Nana Pat so much.  She was the strongest, toughest, most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.   She went from being the strong woman I knew to wasting away her last days in Hospice over the course of several months in 2006.  Many of her symptoms had been hidden and complicated by other health issues.  When she was diagnosed, it was too late for any effective treatments. 

I am her boy.  I pledge to stay alive for myself, but also for her.  She would have said “Don't cry for me, Wayne, win this fight.  Be the strong, reliant, smart boy I know and WIN.”  Well, I am that strong, reliant, smart man because of her, and I will win.

Many of you may have been through the sort of fear that comes with a cancer diagnoses….the gradually more deterministic testing and then the final pronouncement; when the doctors stop using the phrase “Possibly Something Bad” and start using the word “Cancer”.  This soul scraping fear paralyzed me for several months last year.  This horror of the resolute knowledge that you are going to die, die young, and die after a painful and disabling period of illness.   It is like living with an open, oozing, aching wound.  

I dearly wish that you never have to experience this fear, and the agonizing struggles of health and emotions and finance that usually accompany cancer.  However, what I have found, in this past year, is that a remarkably large number of people have been touched by cancer.  Cancer has impacted most families. Living in this soup of pollution; modern manufacturing, and chemicals, I sometimes dread that cancer will touch us all.

That said…I am alive and with a good prognoses and future.  Fortunately, with the support of family, friends, work, a “kick ass” medical team from New England Medical and Dana Farber, and a novel drug treatment involving “Velcade”, I am in remission, and stronger than ever. The nurses are amazed at how well I am dealing with the transplant and hospital stay. 

The number of treatments for Multiple Myeloma, and the general field of medicine in treating and curing cancer, in general, have been going through a singularity; an exponential period of discovery and development.  The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) played a great role in getting Velcade to patients.  AND I am figuring out how to fight this from within; with my mind, body and heart and soul.  AND I have the best wishes and support of many great people.  I plan on living to an old age.  Just so you know, there are many MM survivors who have been in remission for 5, 10, and 15 years and more.  A cure is right around the corner.

I am doing my part in the battle by raising money for the MMRF.  We might be winning the battle, but it is still a fight for life, and we will loose without your contributions.  Your donation does not only help me, but will save the lives of others, and will further the general field of cancer research. An advancement made for one cancer is advancement for all cancers.  As information is shared, we will defeat this monster.  

I am participating in the “MMRF Race for Research” in Boston on May 12; one week after I will be released from the hospital.  The doctors say that I will probably not be able to walk myself.  I anticipate I will prove them wrong.  I would like to ask you to sponsor me and my team for this race.  Any amount will do - $5.00 is as welcome as $50.00, if that is what you can spare.

You can make your donation online by following this link:

http://www.active.com/donate/boston2007/Wayne

Alternately, we can accept checks made out to Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (or MMRF) and sent by May 9, 2007 to:

Wayne Glynn & DaShawn Bennett

22 Trudy Terr

Brockton, MA 02301

 Or if you would like to contribute extra ….join our team as a Walker or fundraiser on my team. You can do so by clicking the link below, or contacting us.  You will receive this lovely T-Shirt.  And our eternal thanks.

http://www.active. com/register/ index.cfm? event_id= 1398161&subevent_id= 791382&team_id=322334

Select "team registration" & Team name: “Team Glynn: For Nana Pat and Wayne”. There is no team password