Blood and Bone Marrow Cancers – From Fiction to Reality
My mystery novel, Blood and Bone, revolves around Kyle Mortimer, a teenager who needs a bone marrow transplant to survive leukemia. The search for his father, a possible donor, drives the story’s action until the end. Since this is fiction, Kyle is naturally saved just in time.
Kyle Mortimer is a fictitious character but, sadly, Kyle’s illness is very real. Leukemia and myeloma are real life cancers that originate in the bone marrow. The diseases result when a single cell becomes abnormal, or malignant, and multiplies continuously. The accumulation of malignant cells interferes with the body's production of healthy blood cells and makes the body unable to protect itself against infections.
An estimated 109,500 people in the United States will be diagnosed with leukemia, myeloma, and related lymphoma this year. Think about it. Every five minutes, someone in the United States is told that they have leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma. That news gets delivered to someone more than 300 times a day.
Leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma will take about 60,000 of our fellow Americans from us this year. And leukemia and lymphomas are the leading fatal cancers in men under 35. Every nine minutes or so, a child or adult dies from leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma.
You can learn more about blood related cancers from the same place I did, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
MORE LEUKEMIA ESSAYS:
The Facts of Bone Marrow Transplants.