Name: Jennifer DeChello

Age: 49

Hometown: Wallingford, Connecticut

My Story: In January 2015, after many years of undiagnosed head and neck pain, I started having double vision, vision loss and painful tongue spasms that made swallowing almost impossible. An MRI showed a large plasma cytoma in my skull which lead to the multiple myeloma diagnosis. I had spent my entire life focused on health and fitness which seemed to make the diagnosis doubly cruel. Should have spent more time eating junk food apparently...I've had radiation to the tumor which shrunk it quite a bit. Vision is pretty good and spasms stopped. Did the Velcade, Rev, Dex routine and I've had a very good partial response. I feel incredibly grateful that I'm able to do this hike with my son! To go from where I was a year ago to training for this hike is a miracle. Without the MMRF I wouldn't be here. I'll give back to this organization for as long as I'm here...and thanks to them I'm planning on that being a really long time! They are laser focused and I'll be eternally grateful for that. I'm doing this hike for me, the MMRF and all the patients who have come before me.