Dave Luttrell

One Family Two Cities
 

Early 2018 my Dad was diagnosed with CLL (Chronic Lympathic Leukemia) which was a shock to our whole family. My dad had complained of being tired for quite a long time but we never thought this would be the cause.

Throughout his 6 months of chemo my Dad went through blood transfusions and finally was given medication to help fight off and increase his white blood cell count and get him on the road to recovery. This was really hard because just at the end of 2017 I had moved here to Edmonton while my my Dad lives in London Ontario.

By September while talking to my step mother I was told my fathers boss and all of the employees at his work place had found out about the Light the Night walk and had created a team in honour of my Dad. He was so touched by this. My step mother had told me this walk was available all across Canada so we looked into when the Edmonton one was.

After looking into when the Edmonton walk was it was already halfway through September, the walk in London Ontario was in October so they had quite a while to raise money ! Meanwhile the walk here in Edmonton was about a week and a half away. We decided I would created my own team in honour of my dad and walk here. Through the help of friends, family and co-workers we were able to in such a short time raise more than $400 !

We did our light the night walk, took pictures and waited until October to surprise my father. On the morning of the walk in London my step mother had printed out our pictures and made a little picture frame with the total money we raised in honour of my Dad. Once my Dad woke up and went down stairs he saw what we had done for him and was so over joyed, he definitely got chocked up over it! It was super emotional for him.

By this time my dad had gone through his 6 months of Chemo and had gone back to the doctor who had said all of his lymph nodes had begun to shrink and white blood cell count was going up ! Through all of this time because my dad is so hardworking he barely took any time off of work and worked through the entire sickness !

Today my Dad is in remission. Thanks to all of the people who have donated and given money to foundations like this one. Though there is no cure to this disease without foundations like this my dad may not be here today.