Heather is Running for Poppi

(Written by Heather Armstrong)

Cancer is what we call the C-word in my family. My dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 Mantle Cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma about 4 years ago and it threw us all for a loop, to say the least. It was caught by his family doctor simply by him having an elevated white cell count. We were told he probably wouldn't survive but we were blessed with the best doctors at CCI that refused to treat him like any other patient. They realized he was healthier than his age and agreed to try a more aggressive type of chemotherapy on him. It was very hard on his body and we all took turns taking care of him during the treatment, including sitting by his bed as he received new blood and in the hospital as he was dangerously close to dying.

Then, the most unexpected thing happened, after the last hospitalization that nearly cost him his life, the oncologist said we were stopping treatment and would see where we were with the cancer. Everyone we knew prayed and prayed and hoped for the best. We were either going to lose him or hope for a miracle.

Then we got the test results back...it was gone, completely gone. Not one cancerous cell was in his body and it has remained that way to this day.

He was never supposed to be around to see his first and only granddaughter; he is her Poppi and she thinks he hung the moon. I am his only daughter and a Daddy's girl forever and can't express how happy I am he lived to be a grandfather.

He is an aerospace engineer here in Huntsville for the Department of Defense, married to my mother now for 43 years, has 3 children, one grandchild and is a very talented artist. Look over some of his work, it's amazing. His website is: http://www.tfmartin.com/index.html