Elizabeth Emory was 25 weeks pregnant when she learned she had stage four Burkitt non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
"It was shocking, of course, and terrifying,” Emory said.
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WATCH HEREThe National Institute of Health describes Burkitt as an aggressive cancer that starts in the blood.
"You're talking about replacing the blood for me but also for my child, so it was much more critical. My ability to bounce back was affecting her ability to grow,” Emory said.
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SIGN UP Emory, a nurse, said she went through six rounds of chemotherapy. Four of those were during her pregnancy and two were after her daughter Hannah was born, while she was a brand-new mom.
After each round of chemo, she said she would go through multiple-day, continuous blood transfusions, which worked to wipe out the cancer cells and help her body recover.
"There's not a day, I could actually say there's not an hour that goes by where I don't think about it,” Emory said.
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Emory is about to hit four years cancer free in June and said their daughter Hannah is a miracle.
She said she's thankful to the strangers who donated blood, allowing her to get 10 transfusions during her treatment at Yale New Haven Hospital.
"If me as one person is getting 10 units, what's somebody else in the room next door getting? When you look at it in the whole country or whole world, that's a lot of people,” Emory said.
She said her loved ones donate every 56 days at blood drives throughout the state, including at the Red Cross’ partnership blood drive with NBC Connecticut, which is happening on May 20.
Emory also hosts her own blood drive in June to commemorate her cancer-free anniversary.
“A very simple act by people showing up to give blood has allowed me and my daughter and my husband to live the rest of our lives very happily,” Emory said.
