My sister, Deanna Ryan, invited me to present the use of Stem Cell Transplants for curing cancer to her elementary school class. Deanna was teaching a science lesson on stem cells and really thought her class would benefit from learning about how stem cells can be used to cure certain types of cancers. At first, I almost did not take Deanna up on this… but it did not take long for me to see what a great opportunity this was. Not only did I get to the opportunity to maybe inspire a future oncologist, but I was able to see my sister at work with her children. She is such a great teacher. She cares about her kids and is always finding creative ways to teach her class. Her class was well behaved and I could tell that even though she is very firm with her students that her students truly feel that Deanna cares for them.

Dea sent some pictures of the event that I have posted up to Flickr. I also saved a pdf of the presentation (see - My Stem Cell Transplant Presentation). I don’t think this will be the last time I cover a presentation like this. I really enjoyed sharing this with inquisitive children. They were so interested in stem cells and my personal story. The questions I got were very thoughtful questions – even the last question… which really was a tough question. I mentioned a friend (Jim a 24 year old young man for Louisiana) I made that had an interesting treatment of rabbit antibodies (a very interesting story) that were used to prepare for his alleogeneic stem cell transplant. This boy that asked the question at the end wanted to know if my friend was alive today and I had to tell him that Jim’s cancer came back aggressively after his treatment and he passed away about 3 months after his stem cell transplant. That was a sobering final question, but it is the reality of making friends while going through cancer treatment.

Thank you again Dea for this opportunity!