Blood Cancer Awareness Month 2022
September 1, 2022
Congress designated September as National Blood Cancer Awareness Month in 2010. Since then, patients and advocates come together to raise awareness and fight to end blood cancers. Approximately 1.3 million Americans are living with or in remission from a blood cancer. This means that every 3 minutes, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with a blood cancer.
What is PEN Doing?
Our free programs provide patients and their families the knowledge and tools to boost their confidence, put them in control of their healthcare journey, and assist them in receiving the best, most personalized care available to ensure they have the best possible outcome.
In addition to our programs, PEN’s Empowerment Lead program is made up of highly passionate empowerment ambassadors volunteering from around the country, engaging with PEN’s network of cancer patients and families, and serving as a direct conduit of empowerment. Our goal for this program is to support health communities around important topics and provide navigation for the path to empowerment.
Programs by Blood Cancer
- Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
- Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)
- Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas
- Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL)
- Follicular Lymphoma (FL)
- Waldenström Macroglobulinemia
- Multiple Myeloma
- Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPNs)
Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Programs
Meet your AML Empowerment Leads
Art Flatau
Art was diagnosed with AML and hopes to use his journey with AML, as well as his experience with patient advocacy, to help others through an AML diagnosis and/or transplant.
Sasha Tanori
Sasha was diagnosed with AML in 2017 and believes patient advocacy is extremely important because just knowing you aren’t alone on your health journey makes such a difference.
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) Programs
Meet your CLL Empowerment Lead
Volleen White
Volleen is a CLL, B-Cell type, Stage 4 patient who was diagnosed 15 years ago. She has worked in many areas in the hospital and really enjoyed helping people.
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Programs
Multiple Myeloma Programs
Meet your Myeloma Empowerment Lead
Lisa Hatfield
Lisa was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma at the age of 49. Her research-heavy education has proved helpful as she continuously conducts research to advocate for herself and for others diagnosed with myeloma.
Myeloproliferative Neoplasm (MPN) Programs
Meet your MPN Empowerment Leads
Summer Golden and Jeff Bushnell
Summer and Jeff have been married over 20 years and when Summer was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, Jeff took on the role of care partner.
