Rebecca Hertzog Burns was devastated to learn that her cancer had returned. After previously fighting off leukaemia, it had come back and according to doctors her prognosis was very poor.

When her family was told the news by doctors, they immediately burst into tears. However, while her family was crying Rebecca was already preparing for the fight ahead. She told her parents: “Ok. That’s alright, you guys cry now. Because after this, there are no more tears, I don’t want to see you guys cry anymore I don’t want to see anymore tears. I’m gonna fight through this and I am going to get through it.”

Rebecca was first diagnosed with leukaemia in 2009 and successfully fought off the disease. It returned in 2014 and Rebecca was soon desperately fighting for her life. The cancer was more aggressive this time and it quickly tore through her body. Rebecca described it as the “hardest battle of her life” but it was a battle that she was determined to win.

By 2015, Rebecca’s doctors had tried various conventional therapies. Unfortunately, they were all unsuccessful and Rebecca’s cancer was winning the war. There was one more possible solution — using a very high dose of chemotherapy to destroy the cancer cells in Rebecca’s bone marrow, then giving her a cord blood stem cell transplant so her body could create healthy blood cells.

The search for a stem cell donor began, but doctors struggled to find a bone marrow stem cell match. They turned to umbilical cord blood stem cells.  Because the cells in cord blood are younger, it is easier to find a match. In September of 2015, a young boy was born with compatible stem cells.

Soon after, Rebecca underwent aggressive chemotherapy and received her cord blood stem cell transplant. The transplant was performed at the University of Kansas hospital. A few weeks after the treatment was performed, Rebecca received the news that she was in remission!

Rebecca’s treating physician, Dr Joseph McGruk, said that stem cell transplants are an incredible breakthrough for treating cancer saying: “We are in the middle of a revolution of cancer medicine.”

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