UPDATE: Health, and Gratitude, in a Season of Thanksgiving
Activist Rocky Twyman, left, and Denae Hilliard talk in March with GMU coach Adrian Austin about Ramon Hilliard's bone marrow transplant.
(By Michel Du Cille -- The Washington Post)
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This time last year, Denae Hilliard hadn't given much thought to Thanksgiving or the spread that usually marked the holiday: a big turkey, lots of stuffing and sweet potato pies. Her son Ramon, 14, had an aggressive form of leukemia. His appetite was gone. He had to withdraw from school -- and from the football field, where he was a scrappy linebacker for his high school's junior varsity team.
Doctors determined that the only thing that could save Ramon was a bone marrow transplant. But the odds were not in his favor. Ramon is African American, and, according to Juliet Williams, area coordinator of the National Marrow Donor Program, "Of the 5 million people on the bone marrow registry, only 500,000 are African American."
Still, Williams, local bone marrow activist Rocky Twyman and Hilliard joined forces to host several bone marrow drives even as Ramon's medical condition began to deteriorate.
"I lost my job because I made my son's illness a full-time priority," Hilliard said. "We held bone marrow drives everywhere."
There were carwashes and cookouts in the parking lot of Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, a drive held outside the Verizon Center before an NCAA basketball tournament game in March. Dozens of fans and a George Mason University coach stopped to pray with Hilliard.
All the while, Ramon's condition continued to worsen. Chemotherapy took his hair. His appetite decreased. Hilliard said she reminded him of his feats on the field and told him that he could not quit.
"Every day, she was in my face in the hospital," Ramon said. "I knew my body was taking a lot. Mentally, it was kind of hard watching myself go down."
In July, Ramon had a bone marrow transplant at Children's Hospital -- even though the marrow wasn't a complete match. He would spend 100 days in isolation in an attempt to keep his body from rejecting the transplant.
Two weeks ago, Ramon emerged from isolation. He can now go anywhere and eat anything.
"Ramon is doing amazing," Hilliard said. "The first thing we did when he got out of isolation is go back to church, Union Temple, to give God the praise and the glory and thanks."
This year, Hilliard said she is planning a big Thanksgiving feast -- Ramon now has a huge appetite. "He is gaining weight. His hair is coming back."
Added Ramon: "My body got better. I came back."
-- Hamil R. Harris
