Met an amazing guy last night, with the most amazing story. Mark Schaible, USAF Experimental Test Pilot and Cancer Survivor is to become the First Ever Unrelated Donor Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient to Summit Mt Everest.
Here’s an expert from his website …
“In 1999, I was on top of the world. I was the number one rated USAF Experimental Test Pilot, a top 1% Air Force Officer and had a 2-star hand written endorsement to go fly the space shuttle in the NASA class of 2000. I had flown over 50 different aircraft, 100+ elevated risk test missions and graduated at the top of every school. I competed in marathons, triathlons (never lost) and thought I was in peak condition. That all changed in April of 1999. I had been having a pain in my left leg that the doctors were unable to alleviate. It was finally determined that I needed to have an MRI of my spine to ascertain if it was nerve related. In conjunction with the MRI they decide to have blood drawn to eliminate causal effects. What they found in the blood test stunned them. They even repeated the test as the doctor thought the lab had messed up the test. My red blood cell count was about 1/3 of what it was supposed to be. I was immediately referred to an oncologist at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. Naval Captain Fred Millard, the head of the Oncology Department, was my assigned doctor. At diagnosis, it was determined that I had stage 4 WaldenstromsMacroglobulinemia or Lymphoplasmacytic Lymphoma ….”
Read More http://www.markschaible.com/Home_Page.php
May God be with Mark on his Quest!
Joe
