GRIT & Grace

Equestrian Elizabeth “Sis” Loughrin was faced with a tough cancer diagnosis and treatment.

- SARAH SUSA

In August of 2021, just days after finishing a week of advanced camp at Black Dog Stables in Gibsonia, Pa., 10-year-old equestrian Elizabeth Loughrin—who friends and family call “Sis”—started experiencing daily headaches and nausea. After several visits to the emergency room with no clear answers, her doctors ordered bloodwork.

The results were unthinkable: Sis had leukemia, a type of cancer.

BATTLING FOR RECOVERY

Inside our bones is a spongy tissue called bone marrow, which produces, among other things, white blood cells that fight off infections. But leukemia causes the bone marrow to produce white blood cells that don't function correctly, making people sick.

Sis needed to start chemotherapy immediately. “Chemo,” as you may have heard it called, uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cancer cells. But this comes with many unpleasant side effects, including tiredness and nausea. The chemo would also cause Sis to lose her hair. She was scared.

Sis's doctors developed a two-year treatment plan, and she quickly went into remission; the signs and symptoms of her cancer had disappeared. But a year later, during a routine test, doctors found cancer in Sis's bone marrow. Her illness had returned, now more dangerous than ever.

Sis and her parents on the day of her bone marrow transplant-she says it was not too bad after the rounds of chemotherapy she'd been through.

BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT

Sis's only hope was a procedure called a bone marrow transplant. First, Sis' doctors would use heavy doses of chemo and radiation to destroy her diseased bone marrow, and she'd have to spend a whole month in the hospital.

Then, they'd infuse healthy bone marrow into Sis's body, where it would hopefully create new, healthy blood cells.