Professor Puts Blood Cancer on the Run

FIVE YEARS AGO, at age 36, Adam Wende, Ph.D., got a diagnosis of leukemia. It came as a blow for the UAB Associate Professor of Pathology and his wife, Sandra.

But Wende was fortunate. UAB doctors, including Ravi Bhatia, M.D., Interim Director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB, were able to control his chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, through daily medication. Now age 41 and five years into remission, Wende is expressing his gratitude with his goal to raise $20,000 for blood cancer research. He is a member of a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society fundraising running team for the 2020 London Marathon next spring.

“Last year,” Adam Wende said, “I was reminded that not all people have been as fortunate as I am. I found out one of my friends from St. Louis, Emily McCay, had been battling acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, since 2016. The amazing videos she posted on Facebook describing her journey moved me.”

“Unfortunately,” Wende said, “that November AML claimed her life. A couple of months later, I reached out to her husband, my old friend Dave McCay. After talking, I knew I wanted to take on a new challenge.”

So Adam Wende is combining his passion for running with a place on the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. “I was really inspired by Emily’s courage, and it motivated me to raise funds to help those not as fortunate as I was with CML.”

Details of his story and motivation are on his donation website, which is dedicated to her memory. By Jeff Hansen