On my birthday I’m declaring this ‘A Very Hopeful Year’

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

872

Abstract

om visiting my 87-year-old mother who had a stroke and spent six weeks in a rehab center. It kept me from hugging my newborn identical twin grandbaby boys.With so much illness and death, so much despair, civil unrest and uncertainty, I will still say this: It was a year filled with hope.I’ve watched neighbors and neighborhoods come together. The fortunate helping the less fortunate. People speaking out for justice without regard for what others think, or even their own safety. It will be said that it took a pandemic to bring some of us closer.I’ve listened to songwriters and poets, friends and family, doctors and patients express the beauty of humanity— celebrating what they live for, what they have, rather than have not.I’ve interviewed researchers working diligently to cure not just a virus t

Options

hat continues to attack millions of people, but rare diseases that affect only 1 in 100,000. Their collective dedication transforms theoretical questions in the laboratory into very real clinical trials, with new answers, new hope and new beginnings. I am personally witnessing the results: as a health writer, a patient advocate, and one who is in a two-year clinical trial for a rare blood cancer called MPNs (myeloprolific neoplasms).This is the year I was called a “poster child” for clinical medical trials. This is the year my disease actually began to reverse itself — a virtually undocumented occurrence until now.In the middle of one of the most difficult years in recent history, I have the great privilege of beginning my new travel around the sun with renewed optimism, replenished energy and much promise.</article></body>

On my birthday I’m declaring this ‘A Very Hopeful Year’

Another trip around the sun. Another one to come.

I believe in celebrating birthdays. Whatever the past year delivered, it is a way to begin fresh — to gratefully acknowledge what has elevated us, what has confronted us, and how we have risen to meet its demands.

The challenges of COVID-19 kept me from my beloved “children,” as they lived, worked and sheltered in place in Manhattan. It kept me from visiting my 87-year-old mother who had a stroke and spent six weeks in a rehab center. It kept me from hugging my newborn identical twin grandbaby boys.

With so much illness and death, so much despair, civil unrest and uncertainty, I will still say this: It was a year filled with hope.

I’ve watched neighbors and neighborhoods come together. The fortunate helping the less fortunate. People speaking out for justice without regard for what others think, or even their own safety. It will be said that it took a pandemic to bring some of us closer.

I’ve listened to songwriters and poets, friends and family, doctors and patients express the beauty of humanity— celebrating what they live for, what they have, rather than have not.

I’ve interviewed researchers working diligently to cure not just a virus that continues to attack millions of people, but rare diseases that affect only 1 in 100,000. Their collective dedication transforms theoretical questions in the laboratory into very real clinical trials, with new answers, new hope and new beginnings. I am personally witnessing the results: as a health writer, a patient advocate, and one who is in a two-year clinical trial for a rare blood cancer called MPNs (myeloprolific neoplasms).

This is the year I was called a “poster child” for clinical medical trials. This is the year my disease actually began to reverse itself — a virtually undocumented occurrence until now.

In the middle of one of the most difficult years in recent history, I have the great privilege of beginning my new travel around the sun with renewed optimism, replenished energy and much promise.