"As a 34-year survivor of acute promyelocyctic leukemia (APL), my wish is for
a world without blood cancers."

~Selena Inouye

 From March 11 to May 22, 2022, I'm asking my friends and family to help raise money for, and awareness of, the lifesaving work the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is doing for people living with blood cancers.

You can help by making a donation and sharing my fundraising campaign using the links below with your family and friends.

Thank you so much for your help making my wish come true! 

My Story

I was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 22 in January, 1988. I was an undergraduate at UCLA and had been feeling poorly after a viral infection I caught several months prior. I finally went back to see my childhood pediatrician because I just wasn't feeling better, and learned that some of my blood counts were low. At the time I was finally diagnosed, my white blood cell count was 0.9 (normal is 4.5 to 11.0.)

My sister visits me in my hospital room.
January 1988

I underwent four courses of intensive chemotherapy. Each time they wiped out my bone marrow, hoping my stem cells would regenerate healthy marrow. I was hospitalized at the UCLA Medical Center for each course for up to 4 to 6 weeks at at time.  Thankfully, I went into remission after my first course of chemotherapy, remained in remission for 5 years, and am now fortunate to be able to say that I am cured.

I love my life, despite the fact that life after cancer hasn't always been easy. I became ill right after I finished my cancer treatment with acute Hepatitis C, which I contracted from blood transfusions I received. Over the years, I developed late and long-term effects from cancer treatments, including a life-long risk for heart problems, and damage to the nervous system. I'm also one of the 1-in-3 cancer survivors that develops chronic pain.

As a cancer survivor, I want you to know that:

• In 1988, my chance of survival from acute promelocytic leukemia (APL) was 33%. Today, because of research and improved treatments, APL has a 80% cure rate.
• There are more cancer survivors today than ever before, and life after cancer is better when cancer treatments have fewer late and long-term effects.

So you see, supporting research and treatment development is what makes prevention, better treatments, better patient care, a better life after cancer, and a cure for all blood cancers possible. 

It is my fervent wish that one day, there will be no more blood cancers. That no one will have to go through what I have gone through: having cancer, and living with late and long-term effects of cancer treatment. Until then, I've made it my personal, life-long mission to offer a helping hand and encouragement to other blood cancer survivors. So when my my dear friend Ashley Zeldin shared that she was nominated as a LLS 2022 Visionary of the Year and asked me to join her team, I said, "Yes, of course, I will help!" Her mom is a 12-year non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) survivor.

A world without blood cancers starts with you and me. So thank you for supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through my personal fundraising page. All donations - of any amount - are greatly appreciated, as well as tax-deductible.