Cancer survivor to ride on City of Hope float

Arash Rounaghi of Laguna Beach stays positive despite tough leukemia journey.

- BY ANDREW TURNER

“I HAD such young kids,” said Arash Rounaghi, with George, 8, and Libby, 11.

(City of Hope)

Arash Rounaghi has a joke he likes to tell his doctor these days.

After beating hairy cell leukemia, Rounaghi can take joy in the simple pleasures, not unlike the interactions when he visits Dr. Matthew Mei at the City of Hope.

“I said, ‘There’s something wrong with me,’” Rounaghi said. “He’s like, ‘What’s wrong?’ He always gets all nervous. I said, ‘I've never felt this good in my life. I can do everything I’ve ever done before.’”

A lifelong mountain biker, Rounaghi, 52, began to discover a difference when he was out on the trails with his young son, Henry. A preteen at the time, Henry was pulling away from his father.

In a summer that left him feeling lethargic, the tipping point was a going-away party for his nephew, Alex Rounaghi (currently a member of the Laguna Beach City Council), as he was preparing to attend Dartmouth College. Rounaghi felt exhausted going up the stairs from the beach.

A subsequent doctor's visit revealed that he had low levels of hemoglobin. Then a bone marrow biopsy showed that he was “bone-dry,” he said, and he considers that the point where the battle started.

The journey since has included more than 200 blood transfusions, and the road to recovery required no shortage of support from family and the local community. Rounaghi reckons he underwent eight different treatments, which he described as having the effect of being a “yo-yo” — feeling good, or not so good.

“It got to a point where I was totally a burden on my family,” Rounaghi said. “My daughter, [Libby], was starting kindergarten, it was COVID, my wife, [Stephanie Rounaghi], starts homeschooling the kids. ... It was like the biggest roller coaster ride, and that’s where I was like, ‘Steph, this is not worth it. You guys are better off without me.’