Whitney Harwell’s Story
Cancer is just one part of Whitney Harwell’s life journey that has been defined by her faith in God. She feels blessed in every way, especially because of the obstacles she has overcome. She came from an alcoholic family and became one herself. Her mother also had breast cancer. Not once, but twice. But with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous and her relationship with the Lord, Whitney has been sober for 25 years.
Whitney is a busy woman because she wants to make a difference in the lives of others. She is a wife and mother to husband Glenn and their 11-year-old son William, owns her own business, takes Bible study classes, and volunteers as a pro-life counselor and advocate for young women.
In March of 2016, she woke suddenly with severe pain in her abdomen, which sent her to the emergency room. The surgeons, evaluating a possible twisted ovary, found Stage IV pancreatic cancer, even though she had no prior symptoms. Whitney underwent surgery and in April 2016, with a tumor marker of over 120,000, started an aggressive chemotherapy regime. The chemotherapy reduced her marker to 547, and her cancer stopped growing. But her oncologist felt the cancer would continue to progress and recommended the time was right for a clinical trial.
Glenn, a scientist himself, had already started looking into research options for his wife. Because he had previously contacted Mary Crowley about Whitney in April, she was able to enroll on a clinical trial by September 2016; just as her tumor marker was starting to rise. [Mary Crowley Physician Investigators matched her particular cancer to a specific clinical trial.]
Whitney travels from Ft. Worth to receive her therapies and feels right at home at Mary Crowley. She finds the staff to be wonderful. Even though she has only been on the clinical trial for a relatively short time, Whitney’s first scan showed her two remaining tumors already reduced by 26% and her tumor marker has dropped to 410.
“Since my cancer diagnosis,” Whitney says, “my blessings have far outweighed my challenges. I would not go back and do anything different!"
