Lexington Teen Kicking Cancer's Tail With Help of Blood Donors
Dec. 9, 2024
Ellie Gerwe loves to play soccer. The 14-year-old plays holding midfielder, a position that requires an abundance of effort and toughness with all the running, defensive and offensive responsibilities it includes.
Since she first started playing at 3 years old, Ellie has exuded that necessary energy.
“There’s a big thing we talk about in our family about effort and overcoming different things and being a battler. She was one of those,” said Jason Gerwe, Ellie’s father. “She was always going out there and banging on people. A lot of times she wasn’t the biggest one, but you didn’t know that with the way that she played.”
It was on the soccer field where the Gerwes noticed something wasn’t right with Ellie. Her parents had never questioned her effort or mindset, but suddenly the player known for her engagement and aggression in games barely moved.
Ellie’s parents would ask her if she was losing her interest in soccer, but her love for the game was as strong as ever.
“I couldn’t breathe right,” Ellie said. “I knew it wasn’t like I wasn’t trying. It just wasn’t there. I was really confused. It was scary.”
It turns out the well of energy Ellie would normally pull from was being killed by cancerous cells. She had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and when she was officially diagnosed in May 2023, her hemoglobin – the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body’s tissues and organs – was a jaw-dropping 2.5. The average hemoglobin for a teenage girl is 13.5.
At Ellie’s blood counts, organ failure is imminent.
“When you have a 2.5 hemoglobin, most human beings wouldn’t even be able to be upright,” said Molly Gerwe, Ellie’s mother. “There was little to no blood in her system. Like, it’s absolutely amazing she was going to school and playing soccer at nonfunctioning levels. It’s a testament to how much of a fighter she is and how strong she is.”
Knowing what was going on now, Ellie was ready for the battle ahead, but she needed help. A two-year treatment plan filled with daily doses of chemotherapy, the loss of her hair, and limited exposure to family and friends was ahead of her, but the first thing Ellie required was blood.
“Initially she was given endless amounts of blood and platelet transfusions just to get her back to a semi-normal level of blood,” Molly said.
When the toxic chemotherapy cocktails kicked in, additional blood was needed.
“When the chemotherapy attacks the bad cells, it attacks the good cells as well,” said Molly, who has a background in the medical field. “We needed to re-boost her blood that she could not adequately make on her own.”
Even as the proverbial light at the end the tunnel gets brighter, the role blood donors played in saving Ellie isn’t lost on Molly and Jason. As Catholics who live by the Golden Rule to do unto others what you would have them do for you, they went to quick work to help support a series of Kentucky Blood Center blood drives at Catholic parishes and schools, even as Ellie was in the midst of the grueling treatments.
“What happened to Ellie and our family is totally tragic, but it doesn’t mean you can’t overcome,” Jason said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t make good of it. It doesn’t mean you can’t help people in your community. It doesn’t mean you can’t give life to other people, which is what blood does.”
The Gerwes hope that Ellie’s story brings attention to the role blood transfusions play in the everyday treatment of cancer. Approximately 25% of all blood donated supports patients battling cancer.
“I don’t think you’re ever going to know you need blood until you need blood,” Jason said. "It’s not like your car where you’ve got to go put gas in it. You have to have it. In this situation, you don’t think about it because it’s not affecting you on a daily basis. I think when you hear a story like this, it should make you think differently. It should make you realize that you don’t know when you’re going to wake up one day – it could be your child, your parent or anybody – and be in a situation where they’re diagnosed with a diagnosis like we got, and you’re going to need that blood.”
