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Woman Focuses Efforts on Young Adult NeedsAt the prime of her life, Jackie Farry had a young adult's dream job: managing rock bands on tour. "It was long, 16-hour days and weeks away from home," says Farry, "but with touring you get to make a living and travel around the world. You rarely spend more than a day or two in any one place but it's still an awesome job." 
It was on such a tour that she first had her first inkling that something was wrong. "We were in Spain and I was choking and laughing at the same time and I broke two of my ribs," recalls Farry. "On the flight back to New York, I sneezed as we approached the runway and broke a third one." The emergency room doctor initially dismissed her complaints and said there was nothing wrong. "He treated me like a drug addict who was just trying to get some free Vicodin," says Farry. But the radiologist spotted the fractures quickly and noticed some lesions on her shoulder as well. "She told me get a work-up for multiple myeloma. I didn't know what she meant, but I thanked her and went home." Now, nearly two years later, Farry is all too familiar with multiple myeloma and the world of bone marrow transplantation. Being an independent contractor, Farry not only struggled with the disease and treatment, but had to get creative to raise money to pay for her living expenses while she was ill. "Many of my friends were pushing me to have a benefit concert, but for a while I was too sick, too depressed and too ashamed to ask for help," she says. "When I finally said 'let's go' to a benefit show, my friends in Los Angeles got one together and I, with some help from friends, got one together in New York." She also put together an online raffle with prizes donated by her friends in the music industry. "It was the coolest thing," says Farry. "Basically, anyone could buy a raffle ticket for 12 bucks and win a list of prizes that would blow your mind." The prizes ranged from guitar and drum lessons by rock artists to free pedicures and gumball machines. "The key to my success was the support of all the bands that linked to my web site from their web site and donated prizes and services," she says. "I didn't have to recruit hardly anything. People heard what I was doing and were throwing stuff my way." The concerts and auction raised more than $35,000, part of which Farry used to cover her living expenses. The rest she is donating to help other young adults with cancer. "The hardest part for me has been post-transplant," says Farry. "There's a lot of information out there about coping with chemo, but not as much about surviving the transplant. I found that my friends and support team, once they heard I was in remission, thought that everything was cool, but that's a big misconception." Farry and BMT InfoNet are teaming up to learn more about the needs of young adult transplant survivors. If you were transplanted as a young adult, please give us some feedback.
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