Rose Giuliano Jack had just come upstairs from teaching two classes in her basement pilates studio in the Heights. It was about 8 p.m. when the call came in – it was her doctor.
He asked if she was alone and if she wanted to wait till someone else was home.
She did not want to wait.
“He said, ‘You have leukemia, and you have to get to the hospital in 24 hours,’” Giuliano Jack recalls. “I was just in shock. I called my husband who was walking our dog. I said, ‘You have to come home. I have to go to the hospital. I have leukemia.”
It was Thursday, Jan. 14, and that was how she learned she had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. The only prior hint was a bout of fatigue after a flu in December and some unusual bruising. If it hadn’t been for a blood screen – just in case – she wouldn’t have known.
Giuliano Jack, 54, is a mother of four and a longtime Burnaby resident. Until recently, she ran a home fitness studio teaching pilates and yoga. Her diagnosis came as a shock to family and friends.
“This is what freaked people out: I’m fit, I eat well, I’ve lived a balanced lifestyle. I just have a happy life – and bang,” she says. “I got so many messages: ‘You are the healthiest person I know.’”
Since January, she’s had three rounds of chemo, and she’s been in and out of hospital.
She’s lost 25 pounds and her long, curly locks. Everything revolves around the strength of her immune system, and there are ups and downs.
Her husband, Lance, says the hardest thing is the helplessness when he’s used to taking care of her.
“In this case, I can’t do a damn thing,” he says.
The doctors never really said how long Giuliano Jack has, and she didn’t ask. If she can get a bone marrow transplant, she could have several years, but that means finding a DNA match. So far, she’s tried her siblings, but no luck. Throughout it all, she’s stayed positive.
“I’m going to defy all odds; I’m just going to be really strong,” she says. “I have a pretty good feeling something is coming up. … They keep looking. They look every day, but it’s very difficult.”
Giuliano Jack’s son, Nathaniel, said it’s been an emotional roller coaster.
“My mom is the type of person, when she walked into emergency, she said she wanted to do something positive with this whole experience – she said that to the nurse,” Nathaniel recalls.
To help, Nathaniel is playing a free, all-ages concert with his band Lucid AfterLife. The show is on Friday, July 15 at a club called Seven, at 53 West Broadway in Vancouver. OneMatch will be there from 6:30 to 8 p.m., taking DNA swabs from anyone willing to step forward as a possible stem cell donor. OneMatch is a Canadian Blood Services program that connects potential stem cell donors to people like Nathaniel’s mom.
“This is something you can do, and it doesn’t cost you anything to do, but it can save a life anywhere,” Giuliano Jack says. “These people are waiting, kids are waiting.”
Giuliano Jack is keeping her spirits up, although she says she may still be in shock.
“I have good days and bad days. I get really emotional. It’s scary; it’s just scary, but when you are put into this situation, you have no choice,” she says. “I don’t want to give up; I have way too much to live for.”
Through it all, Giuliano Jack insists this story isn’t about her. It’s about helping others.
“I want to reach out to as many people as I can to help so many people who are suffering and waiting for transplant. I want this to be about how you can save a life – not just my life, anyone who’s waiting. So go out there and do it for the hundreds of people who are waiting for a donor.”
Information about OneMatch
- Eligible people between 17 and 35 years old can have their cheeks swabbed and their DNA sample put in the registry.
- OneMatch is connected to an international network with more than 23 million donors in more than 70 registries.
- OneMatch is looking for pairs of people with compatible inherited genetic markers. The better the compatibility, the more likely the success of the operation.
- Fewer than one in four find a match from their own family members, which is the first place to look. That means 75 per cent rely on the kindness of strangers to step up and join the registry.
- Leukemia, aplastic anemia, and inherited immune system and metabolic disorders can be treated with stem cell transplants.
- If you are a match, you can donate bone marrow through a minor surgery procedure or peripheral blood. Four out of five times, the less invasive peripheral blood procedure is used.
- After the procedure, the donor can feel tired and run down. Meanwhile, the stem cells are taken that same day to the patient – anywhere in the world – for a transplant soon after.
- If you can’t make the July 15 Lucid AfterLife concert, there’s another swabbing event at Vancouver’s Italian Cultural Centre on Thursday, July 14, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and another on Sunday, July 17 at Byrne Creek Secondary, 7777 18th St., from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- To request a cheek-swabbing kit, go to blood.ca.
