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A Mother’s Determination

Brooke Arnold

With the gift of childbirth come the new challenges, questions, joys and even doubts of parenting. But Becky Arnold, of Montrose, Pennsylvania, was confronted by the uncertainties and challenges of parenting all too soon when her three-year-old daughter Brooke was diagnosed with leukemia.

Being a critical care nurse, Becky knew there was something drastically wrong in August 2004, when her seemingly strong, healthy toddler developed a high fever lasting a week. After being transferred to University Hospital in Syracuse, New York from Pennsylvania, doctors ran tests and immediately found leukemia cells in Brooke’s blood. She was then moved to the operating room and doctors administered chemotherapy immediately, with the hopes of igniting the process of killing the leukemia cells. After her first treatment of chemotherapy, Brooke also needed her first unit of blood. With that one unit, she started adjusting to what would become a regular process of receiving chemo and blood transfusions to sustain her.

Although Brooke is only three years old, she continued to receive chemotherapy treatments every three weeks. With the energy and spunk of any toddler, Brooke loves playing with her two siblings, William, age five, and Briana, age 11, but becomes anemic from the chemotherapy treatments, which kill cancerous and healthy cells alike. Twice since her diagnosis, her blood count has dropped low enough to require blood transfusions. Brooke has been fortunate enough to receive these blood transfusions, giving her strength for both her illness and her treatments. But Becky stresses that some patients are not as fortunate as Brooke and fail to receive their required blood transfusions when they are in critical need because of the shortages of blood and platelets available.

“After receiving blood, Brooke becomes active and lives the life of an average three-year-old again. Without the blood, she would be very sick and tired, and because I have seen this first hand, I have started organizing blood drives to encourage people to donate and hopefully guarantee that all patients will have blood transfusions available when they need them to keep them from falling weak and tired as well,” said Becky.

Becky has been a regular donor for years and has supported blood donation all of her life, but with Brooke’s new found dependence on blood donation, Becky says she is extremely grateful to all the donors and individuals involved in blood donation.

“Blood products are a part of most children’s lives in the Hematology/Oncology wing in University Hospital, and I wish people could see the impact that they can have in improving the quality and saving the lives of the patients just by donating blood.”

Becky says her daughter’s constant health improvement has become her mission and she keeps active in sponsoring blood drives. She is determined to not only increase awareness about the need for blood donation, but to help patients everywhere in need of the “gift of life.”