LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Every three minutes someone is diagnosed with blood cancer.
One minute you’re young and healthy, the next you can barely walk up a flight of stairs, that’s what happened to a young Las Vegas woman.
Madison Freedle’s road to recovery means finding her match in the worldwide bone marrow registry.
For thousands of critically ill blood cancer patients, there is a cure.
And it could be you.
By sharing her struggle she hopes it might inspire someone to be the match.
For Freedle just doing some of the most regular day tasks can be taxing on her body.
“Kind of had an episode where I went up the stairs and my heart was just racing like I had just sprinted a marathon,” she said.
Beyond feeling debilitated, 30-year-old Freedle also had suspicious bruising.
After months of unexplained symptoms, her family urged her to go get checked out by a doctor.
“If you don’t go to the E.R. I’m going to call an ambulance to come pick you up,” she recalled her family telling her.
That put the UNLV grad on a path of countless tests.
Her diagnosis was devastating.
“I have had a total of three bone marrow biopsies, they have diagnosed me with aplastic anemia, which is complete bone marrow failure,” Freedle adds.
That failure causes critically low blood counts, her best chance for a full recovery is a bone marrow transplant.
It was a long shot, but her half-sister Miranda may be her miracle.
The sisters share the same mother but have different fathers.
“So the results are back and you’re my match and I was just like oh my gosh happy tears from everybody,” Steiner recalled.
Doctors were able to check eight out of ten boxes, so a life-saving transplant is possible.
“I know, I know it’s crazy, so excited to finally have this step and I can save my sister’s life, and everybody’s just like whoa!” said Steiner.
Las Vegas isn’t able to provide the specialists or resources needed so she and her fiance are traveling to Seattle for treatment.
Freedle’s family support team is there too.
“100 days of constant monitoring if all goes well I’ll be able to come back to Vegas in around January, ” said Freedle.
Insurance covers most of the procedure, but a GoFundMe account could raise enough to cover a long list of other expenses, to help a young woman in the fight of her life.
“Very humbling experience to see people reaching out I’m very grateful for it,” said Freedle.
The sisters say they want to encourage everyone to join the bone marrow registry.
Out of more than 20 million people worldwide, Freedle found one person with a 10 out of 10 perfect match placement.
Unfortunately, that person declined to become her donor.
The sisters hope the more people register, the more chances people like Freedle could find their lifesaver.
For more information on how you can help Madison Freedle out we have provided a link to her GoFundMe page and another link to the Be The Match organization to find out how to become a donor match.
