WASHINGTON — It is estimated that more than one million people in the United States are living with or are in remission from blood cancer, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month which aims to raise awareness around efforts to fight blood cancers such as, leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and Hodgkin's disease.
Erica Campbell is a stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor who uses her story to inspire other people battling blood cancers.
"It was a very scary journey,” Campbell said. “I never thought that at 27 years of age, I would be diagnosed with cancer.”
The Southeast D.C. native recalled having a persistent cough before scheduling an appointment with her doctor and assuming she had a common cold.
After a failed round of antibiotics, Campbell received a CAT scan with concerning results.
“After that, it started my journey -- my ongoing journey. The different doctor's appointments, the backing for the final confirmation of me being sick with Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Campbell recalled. “In that moment, I was afraid I was. I was scared. I was, I was devastated. I was angry, you know, let me be a realist. Let me be real. I was angry with God in that moment like why did you choose me? Why am I going through this?”
Campbell said she was in and out of the hospital for medical procedures over the course of several months and developed crippling anxiety.
“I just remember laying there and the anxiety just hit me,” Campbell told WUSA9. “It felt like the devil was on me. Trying to just come on me and take me out. I never felt that way before.”
She said the support of her family and friends helped get her through her diagnosis and treatments.
After six months of chemotherapy, Campbell recalled what it felt like to come out on the other side of her personal storm.
“At the end of your treatment cycle you ring this bell that's on the wall, and I'm telling you I felt like I was about to take the bell off the wall,” she laughed.
After a year of being in remission, Campbell decided to start a movement to help other people in their fights against cancer.
“I said you know what -- I have a desire to survive. I took that and I ran with it. I said that is going to be my movement. I want to make that a cancer advocacy support movement for others,” she said.
Campbell is an ambassador for a cancer organization, works as a beauty model, and works to inspire people to survive through her story.
“I have a desire. I have a want, I have a need to survive this cancer battle. Whatever you're in, you want -- you desire to overcome that, to survive it,” Campbell said.