Elisha Mott is a junior at Brentwood High School in Brentwood Tennessee. She has two little sisters, Chelsea 15, and Julia 10. She loves life and was enjoying playing on her lacrosse team, going to Younglife, and church activities when she got very sick.  She came down with a throat infection, which in turn they thought turned into a lot of other things, and her platelets kept on dropping.  Once they got so low, we were sent to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital to a blood specialist, and the word cancer was thrown around.  That's when we knew it was serious.  Elisha was diagnosed with ALL Leukemia on March 5, 2009. This turned everyone’s life into a roller coaster. 

   Leukemia is a very common type of blood cancer.  It is now, thanks to research, considered very curable, that is, after all the horrible side-effects of treatments. An estimated 245,225 people in the United States are living with, or are in remission from, leukemia.  About 33 percent of cancers in children aged 0-14 years are leukemia. The most common cancer in children 1 to 7 years old is acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).

   She was diagnosed one day, and admitted for surgery and chemotherapy the next.  During the first week or so, she was in remission.  She had 4 more rounds of chemo before her radiation and bone marrow transplant and they were rough.  She got very very sick and could not eat.  She slept a lot, and was put on many different types of medicines for many different reasons. Once it came time for radiation, it hit her the hardest.  After that, when she had little to no blood counts she got her bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor on June 25, 2009.  She was in the hospital for about 3 and a half more weeks until she got to go home. Even after she was home she had to be very careful about germs, and could not go back to school until at least 6 months out.  All of this was hard on her and her family.

   The nurses and doctors at Vanderbilt soon became her family. They would come visit and hangout with her all of the time.  She loved it.  They could not have been more generous, or more kind.  They did everything they could to help anyone and everyone out during this horrible time.  The people and atmosphere there made it so much easier of a transition.  We consider ourselves very lucky to have a wonderful place like Vanderbilt to be our second home.

   Now, Elisha is back at school and loving it.  She has done very well and her body seems to be responding. She has a very positive attitude and spirit through it all and is considered an inspiration to us all.  She is very concerned with the other kids at Vanderbilt as well. 

   Children like Elisha benefit very much from the funds raised by this wonderful event, The Eve of Janus.  There are no words to describe the hope that you are putting back into these patient and families lives each day.  This money goes to help support the care and research in understanding and finding a cure for these devastating diseases of our children. Thank you so much for all that you are doing, I assure you it is changing a life.