Autumn is a 15-year-old girl who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In December 2024, Autumn started to get a little sick and had swollen glands in her neck. I took her to urgent care, and they swabbed her for strep and gave her an antibiotic. After a few days she didn’t have much improvement. So, I took her to her pediatrician’s office. They changed her antibiotic. She started to seem a little better until two days later. In the early morning of Saturday, December 28th she came and woke me up. She just didn’t seem right. She was running a high fever and got sick. It was at that point I decided to take her to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, especially with her past health history. Once we arrived at the hospital and she was checked in, they drew blood, ran tests, and did scans. They admitted her about late afternoon for observation. On Sunday, December 29th, Autumn’s life drastically changed. It was mid-afternoon when the doctors came to me and gave us her diagnosis, AML. At that moment, my heart broke. Our world was turned upside down. She was moved to the pediatric hematology oncology floor to begin treatment. We were at the hospital from December to May, with only two brief release times at home. She went through multiple procedures, rounds of chemo, blood & platelet transfusions. She endured so much pain and sickness but remained so brave! We spent New Years, Easter, and her 15th birthday at the hospital. Part of her treatment plan involved a bone marrow transplant, which so far has been successful. For that she had to make a big adult decision through. Before the transplant we were told that she wouldn’t have any chance of having kids because how strong the chemo was. So, she had to make the decision to have surgery. The hope is to store and freeze one of her ovaries for the possibility to have kids when she’s older and ready. So, that’s what she chose to do, so she had yet another surgery. She has so many hopes and dreams and remains so brave. This also sadly isn’t her first time having cancer but was definitely harder. She was also diagnosed with high-rick pre-B-cell ALL when she was only 15 months old.

For more updates about Autumn, visit her Go Fund Me Page:

https://gofund.me/ba728d6bd