On April 18, 2008, Stephen had just arrived in Fort McMurray for a weekend visit. Just as he pulled into the parking lot by my apartment, he received a phone call telling him to go directly to the emergency room at the University of Alberta. The results of his blood work came back and he had acute promyelocytic leukemia. He was only 23. They told him he had two weeks to live if he didn’t begin treatment. They told him he would never have children. After a his treatment, a surgery to remove a lump on is chest, and an emergency hospital stay for an infection, but he was in remission after six months. I thought I would never have to face the heartbreak of a cancer diagnosis again.

On September 18, 2014 after a week dealing with what seemed like a seasonal flu, Stephen received a phone call telling him to go directly to the emergency room at the University of Alberta. The results of his blood work the previous day had come back and his numbers were not great. He left the house in a whirl wind of panic just as our children were beginning to start their day.

“They are just taking precautions. I’ll be back.”

He left the house at 8:30 that morning. He had a bone marrow biopsy by 10 am. They inserted a central catheter after lunch.  He was back in the haematology unit by six that evening. He did not come home that night. He would not come home for almost a month.