By ERIN MADISON , Tribune Staff Writer/ Business and Health Reporter
Originally published in the Great Falls Tribune on January 15, 2008
Used with permission of the author

Marilee Stott thought she had the flu.

She put her kids on the bus one morning and headed to the doctor's office to get some blood work done.

But it wasn't the flu that was making her tired and achy. Stott had an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia.

Six weeks later, tests showed that she was at 20 percent of a normal blood cell count. That's how quickly the disease came on.

Acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, affects the blood and bone marrow, the tissue where blood cells are made. It causes bone marrow to make abnormal, nonviable blood cells.

Stott underwent a bone marrow transplant as well as many blood transfusions.

The hope is that with her new bone marrow, her body again will be able to make its own blood cells.

But it's not there yet.

For now, Stott relies on blood transfusions to survive.

She burns one unit of blood every week, so every three weeks she receives a three-unit blood transfusion.

In the past two years, Stott has received 148 units.

"Each unit represents one different person," she said.

Most people associate blood donations with surgeries or traumas, but there's also a large need for blood products by cancer patients.

"Many of our treatments that help people with cancer live productive lives can also lead to a need for blood transfusions," said Dr. Brian Abbott, oncologist at Sletten Cancer Institute. "As cancer specialists, we witness the benefits of our blood bank literally every day."

On Thursday, January 17 Sletten Cancer Institute hosted a community blood drive to collect a needed resource and to raise awareness of cancer patients' need for blood products.

Last year, 400 to 500 blood donors were needed per month to serve the needs of patients at Benefis Healthcare, including those at Sletten.

The 148 units of blood Stott has received don't include the huge amount of blood she was given immediately after she was diagnosed two and a half years ago, or the blood she received during chemo therapy and radiation or during her bone marrow transplant.

Stott is trying to track where each of her blood donors is from. She's gotten blood from Great Falls, Helena, Havre and areas in between. She wants to meet some of the blood donors and thank them personally for the gift of life they've given her.

Every time Stott receives a unit of blood, she sees it as someone supporting her, helping her get through her disease.

And she knows she's not alone. Many cancer patients can thank blood donors for helping them through their diseases.

When Stott was diagnosed with AML, she was given a 50 percent chance of survival. She told her doctors to count her in that 50 percent.

A key to getting through it was to stay focused, not on where she was, but where she wanted to be, Stott said. Having the support of hundreds of donors she didn't even know also helped enormously.

"I wouldn't have been able to do this without the blood donors," she said.

Blood donations allow Stott to do all the things she used to take for granted — watch her children perform in school plays and be involved in church and in the community.

"Her life is basically back to normal," said Marilee's husband, Dan Stott.

Neither Stott nor her husband Dan had ever donated blood.

"We had no idea how important it was," Dan Stott said.

Now, after going through so many blood transfusions, Marilee Stott sees so much more good in the world.

"You look at mankind with such a whole new eye," she said.