09/25/2026
"Over 65 years of life, I’ve walked through many difficult seasons, and what I know for certain is this: in every single one, God has been with me, and He has seen me through. But when I got married in February 2023, life felt full again, full of joy, full of plans, full of promise. At my niece’s wedding, while line dancing, I felt a sudden 'pop' in my rib. I never imagined that moment would lead to a diagnosis of multiple myeloma (MM), just three months after marrying my sweet husband, Ray.
I had been enjoying retirement after working since I was 14. I survived shingles in 2020 and an emergency appendectomy that same year. I had been savoring time with my five beautiful grandchildren. Then came 2023, a year I expected to spend traveling and building new memories with the love of my life. Instead, pain, muscle spasms, compression fractures, and rib fractures brought everything to a halt.
Looking back, I realized I had been tired and hurting for a long time but had pushed through it, as I always do. My pain tolerance is high, but this was beyond anything I’d ever known. I thought nothing could hurt worse than labor... then shingles came. And then cancer said, ‘Let me show you what pain really is.’
A stem cell transplant on December 29, 2023.
In June 2024, I got the call: I am MRD-negative and still MRD-negative over a year later. God is great! They may say myeloma is incurable, but I know this: nothing is too hard for God. If He did it before, He can do it again.”
For Dawn, "more" meant more time with her new husband, Ray. Just three months after they were married, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Instead of the travel and adventures they had planned, they faced a blood cancer diagnosis together.
Today, Dawn is MRD-negative and continuing to make memories with her family, her grandchildren, and the life she fought so hard to keep living.
September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month, and we are working toward a future filled with more. Help us raise more awareness and work toward a future where everyone affected by blood cancer has more time to love, more time to dream, and more time to write the next chapter of their story.
We're working toward more time, more hope, and more tomorrows. Learn more about our resources: https://bcutd.org/3Ufxqzz
