Patient of the Month for January: John Abrams
Each member has a unique story, but all reflect the intrinsic courage of one facing the challenge of GIST. John Abrams shares his story.
Each member has a unique story, but all reflect the intrinsic courage of one facing the challenge of GIST. John Abrams shares his story.
Lorie (Skelton) Perry was a GIST patient who passed away on November 11th, 2020. She was known to her family for many things. Among them were her warmth, her willingness to help others, and her talents as a baker. Her family wanted to find a way to honor her memory with a fundraiser.
Christine, a former elementary school teacher, is raising three sons with husband Adam, in New Mexico. She doesn’t feel that creativity has always had a place in her life, but teaching elementary school always provides opportunities for innovation and creative thinking so perhaps it’s a matter of perspective.
GIST happened soon after her first quilt was accepted into a quilt exhibit and after participating in her first holiday craft show last December. Every GIST patient has a unique story about how they were diagnosed and where their journey takes them but Claire can literally credit a recurrence of her sister's ovarian cancer in January as the reason she found her GIST tumor.
You may have spotted a creation by May & Watkins Design and not even realized it. They create public art, or industrial sculptures – art that is commissioned for public spaces. The partnership of artists, Carol May and Tim Watkins, began after meeting as 20-somethings on scholarship at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine.
Pratt institute graduate, John Paul Zagami studied industrial design. John’s journey with GIST began with unexplainable digestive issues. After suffering a kidney stone attack which led to an ER visit, a mass was found.
Angel Selena Rodriguez was living what she considered a very normal life. She was studying medicine, playing violin in an orchestra, and enjoying painting and drawing, and university in Venezuela.
April Lopossa was faced with a daunting decision - to take Gleevec for her newly diagnosed GIST pre-surgery or wait until she delivered her unborn child.
Carlos and Liana Baldor's daughter, Ana Maria Baldor-Bunn, died from GIST in 2002 after a two-year battle. Our In Memoriam website is dedicated to Ana and her father Carl who lost his own battle with cancer in April of 2020.
Cada miembro tiene una historia única, pero todos reflejan el coraje intrínseco de quien enfrenta el desafío de GIST. Leslie Pastén Rojas comparte su historia.