Blood and bone marrow donor advocate now battling cancer

WASILLA — When Kelly Marre and her husband Pat left for a spontaneous vacation, she had no idea the blood test she’d just taken at a local health fair would lead to a cancer diagnosis.

After Pat’s work-related meeting in Seattle, the two drove down to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho with the plan to stay for a few days.

“They just decided they wanted to get out for a while and just went on a road trip,” said Kelly’s daughter, Meghan McNiven, by phone. “It was kind of a last-minute decision.”

Meghan said her parents booked their flights “not even two weeks prior” to their departure. Her mother “had been feeling pretty crappy for the past month or so,” she said, and the test results from the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center health fair revealed an extremely low blood platelet count.

In other words, Kelly was alarmingly anemic.

A few days after arriving in Idaho, Kelly experienced shortness of breath, a rapid heartbeat and extreme fatigue, and was hospitalized, Meghan said. Kelly then received a blood transfusion, but “it didn’t seem to help as much as they had anticipated,” she said, referring to Idaho doctors.

Kelly had a sinking feeling she knew what was happening. Her son Logan had similar symptoms before he was diagnosed with leukemia at age 9, so she asked the doctors to check her blood for the same disease.

On Oct. 11, Kelly was diagnosed with acute erythroid leukemia. This same month, in 1998, Logan passed away at age 11.

“It’s a very aggressive leukemia,” Meghan said, of her mother’s disease.

AEL represents “less than 5 percent of all cases” of acute myeloid leukemia, according to a 2010 article published in the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, compiled by the College of American Pathologists.

As such, Meghan said, pathologists immediately began looking for chromosome markers to determine things like treatment and prognosis percentage. They haven’t received the complete pathology yet, Meghan said Wednesday. When they do, they’ll know the full severity of the cancer and whether her current treatment is the best one.

Kelly completed her one-week induction period of chemotherapy Tuesday.

“The point of that is to completely eliminate all the bone marrow in her body, get rid of the mutant leukemic cells, and hopefully bring her into remission,” Meghan said.

Until 28 days have passed from the start of her chemo, Kelly will be resting, Meghan said. The doctors will then check to see if Kelly’s marrow is producing healthy cells. If so, she will undergo another round of chemo in 3 weeks, called consolidation. If not, she can try the induction again, or she can seek a transplant, which can only take place if there is a donor whose genes partially match Kelly’s.

“It’s pretty likely she will need one but the plan we’re on is Plan A, and we’re hoping for no bone marrow transplant,” Meghan said.

If the transplant does become necessary, Kelly will be moved to the Mayo Clinic in either Minnesota or Arizona, Meghan said.

Transplant or no, there is an increasingly eerie irony in the Marres’ story.

On Oct. 30, 1998, the Frontiersman ran a lengthy story on Logan Marre’s life, lost to acute lymphocytic leukemia. Today is the 16th anniversary of Logan’s death, and his mother’s story is all-too similar to the start of his.

After Logan passed away, Kelly spent most of her time working for the Alaska Department of Corrections, helping host blood and bone marrow drives, or running the Light the Night Walk, in honor of cancer patients and survivors, appearing in numerous articles written by Frontiersman reporters in the early 2000s. Kelly also regularly read to first-graders at a local elementary school, and worked with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on the local level, Meghan said. In 2003, the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce named her Citizen of the Year.

With the recent turn of events, however, she has found herself on the other end of the fundraising, and the people of Wasilla and Coeur d’Alene have not let her down.

Scott Glover, one of Kelly’s co-workers, got the ball rolling by soliciting leave donations from employees at the Goose Creek Correctional Facility, an effort which Kelly’s boss, Josh Mercer, is now pushing at the state level.

“I just sent an email to the union today requesting a department-wide broadcast for leave donations,” Mercer said Wednesday. “I’ve already had several people in my unit donate leave that’s gonna get banked until she needs it.”

Mercer said they’ve done this sort of thing for employees in need in the past, as a “family-oriented” business. They’re also planning on sending Kelly and Pat a care package this week.

“Kelly’s a great employee,” Mercer said. “She’s got a big heart, very compassionate. She’s certainly somebody to look out for.”

Meghan and her family gave public thanks to E.J. Bartells, Pat’s long-time employer.

“They were so extremely helpful when my brother Logan was sick, and they’re being just as helpful with their outpouring (now), letting my dad essentially take indefinite time off,” Meghan said. “They’re a fantastic company. Honestly, I don’t think we would financially be able to handle this without them.”

However, the initial immediate needs of the family when Kelly was first diagnosed, were taken care of by friends of friends in a pleasantly surprising and fortunate six-degrees-of-separation kind of way.

For example, the sister of Meghan’s high school friend Molly’s stepmother owns a vacation home in Coeur d’Alene that she was able to rent out to the Marres at minimum cost when she heard the news, Meghan said.

Kelly was also able to make connections through her home church in Wasilla down in Idaho. A fellow member of Church on the Rock heard of Kelly’s plight and contacted her mother, Kathy Miles, in Idaho, who has since been delivering meals to the Marres at their current home.

The Lynden Corporation and Totem Ocean Trailer Express even stepped in to move the Marres’ car down to Idaho for free, Meghan said.

“My mom is just a huge part of the community as far as volunteering and fundraising, and our family is just so appreciative of everyone who has gone out of their way,” she said. “We just wanna make sure we thank everyone and continue the task my mom’s always been on and making sure people still fundraise” for those with cancer.

To help support Kelly Marre and her family financially as she goes through chemotherapy and other necessary treatments during their stay in Idaho, visit gofundme.com/fzy9yc.

To leave Kelly an encouraging message, visit caringbridge.org/visit/kellymarre.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.