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Mid-South woman battling with leukemia prepares to receive stem cell transplant from son

Marion, Arkansas mother Pam Doherty is battling cancer for the third time.

MARION, Ark. — A Mid-South son is preparing to be the stem cell donor for his mother who is battling leukemia.   

Marion, Arkansas mother Pam Doherty is no stranger to fighting against cancer. She first beat lymphoma just over 20 years ago, then overcame aggressive triple negative breast cancer after a 2016 diagnosis.

Doherty said doctors discovered she had leukemia in March of this year.

“I never really thought about the diagnosis I had,” said the cancer survivor. “I just knew I guess from my lymphoma I never doubted that I wasn’t going to be healed from it. My trust in the Lord, it never crossed my mind that I would not live through it.”

Doherty will travel to Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center to undergo chemotherapy in early September where she will start stem cell transfusion. 

Her life-saving donor is her son Bradford. 

“He came in and told me when he first found out,” Doherty said. “I was the first person he told and he just said I’m the donor. I was like what?”

“It’s special not a lot of people can say that you know they were their mom’s stem cell transplant donor,” said Bradford Doherty. “So it’s defiantly special especially seeing her go through the first two cancers and the only thing I could do was give her a hug.”

Doherty said her family has relied on faith, family and a close support system to keep them motivated.

“We’re hoping after this we can get a little break for good hopefully and we can just be happy,” said Doherty’s son.  

The mother said each life-threatening battle has made her and her family stronger. 

“Being through it for three times we don’t look at it as this could be the one to get me we just look at it as another milestone.”

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