Patient and Family Testimonials

From Someone Who's Been There and Back: Frank Ryan

One of the last promises I made to my dad before he died was to start taking better care of my health. I got a checkup. It was the first one I'd had since joining the Philadelphia Police Department 20 years prior. I wasn't worried. I was feeling fine. But then my blood tests came back. Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I was blown away. 

Next came eight years of hell. Every chemotherapy treatment available. Nothing was working. My oncologist suggested a bone marrow transplant as a last-ditch effort. Where's my best chance, I asked? Everyone agreed: Temple.

And I was in bad shape by the time I got there. And as luck would have it, no one in my family turned out to be a good bone marrow match for me. The staff spent the next month scouring the unrelated donor database to find a donor while repeatedly pulling  me back from the brink.

Finally, a ray of hope: a woman in Texas who put herself on the donor list to honor her late husband. He died because he needed a transplant and no match was found in time to save him. She hoped to help someone else someday. Today she and I are the best of buddies.

Now seven years cancer-free, I live at the Jersey shore and do a lot of biking and fishing. I am in the best shape of my life at 58, with good times ahead with friends and family.

My battle lasted 15 years. I never would have made it without the doctors and staff at Temple.