My Father was the first one of 4 siblings to find out he had DC in 1983 he died in 1985 then my uncle, Aunt and my cousin all succumbed to DC it was not known then what he had the doctors tried everything with no luck. Well fast forward today there are a lot of people that have DC and we have come a long way in technology and research to help fight this and give everyone a fighting chance. I myself was was born with the gene and knew I needed to get tested but I refused to know the truth until the age of 40 it was confirmed no symptoms until last year December 2021 I was walking around feeling very tired out of breath every 20 feet people said I was grey in color was rapidly losing weight and I became anemic then one morning wife couldn’t wake me up out of bed she called 911 they rushed me to the hospital I was diagnosed with DC after bone marrow biopsy my blood (hemoglobin) was 1.9 they said in the hospital we don’t know how you survived after 7 pints of blood and 7 pints of plasma I started to remember my name and where I was this led to rapid diagnosis that I was rapidly advancing to AML I was getting blood transfusions more frequently it was apparent I needed a donor they check with my only sibling and she by a miracle from god was a perfect match 100% the doctor said usually you need four siblings to get maybe 80% but to only have one and it be a 100% is like winning the lottery, so my sister was a success because we’re related my transplant went very smoothly no side effects at all I was released early my new birthday is April 13th 2022 my one year anniversary is coming up and I feel fantastic and normal my counts are all in the green thanks so much to everyone for the generosity and prayers the team Telomeres we’re very helpful in my time of need I am a true success story please keep the faith
Troy Tillery
Gene: TERC
