Last night during halftime of game 6 of the Celtics / Lakers NBA Finals they aired a segment on Derek Fisher and his daughter’s struggles with a degenerative and rare form of eye cancer called retinoblastoma. Luckily, this is a very treatable cancer and has one of the best cure rates of all childhood cancers (95-98%), with more than nine out of every ten sufferers surviving into adulthood. As of today, Tatum Fisher is doing just fine!

Sadly, the segment brought up memories of another little girl who was diagnosed with a rare condition. Her name is Hannah Krom, and she passed away at the age of 14 due to complications associated with pulmonary hypertention, an increase in blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, or pulmonary capillaries. The symptoms develop very gradually, and patients may delay seeing a physician for years. Common symptoms are shortness of breath, fatigue, non-productive cough, angina pectoris, fainting or syncope, peripheral edema (swelling around the ankles and feet), and rarely hemoptysis (coughing up blood). Hannah battled through all of these symptoms with a smile and maintained her sense of humor where most others would have grown angry and sad at their disposition.

Life is not waiting for the storm to pass…
it’s learning to dance in the rain.

Hannah eventually succumbed to the intense force of the disease and increasingly frequent hemoptysis just 2 years after her diagnosis, leaving behind an encouraging story for all children diagnosed with these devastating diseases. It’s through her passion for life and joy of reading that prompted her mother, mary Krom, to start a foundation in her honor to promote literacy, support children with life-threatening illnesses and donate money for research of pulmonary hypertension while sharing Hannah’s love for reading.

Visit www.hannahslore.com for more information and to make a contribution to this cause. With your help we can make a difference in the lives of others suffering and come closer to finding a cure.