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Brielle Benyon, Assistant Managing Editor for CURE®, has been with MJH Life Sciences since 2016. She has served as an editor on both CURE and its sister publication, Oncology Nursing News. Brielle is a graduate from The College of New Jersey. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, CrossFit and wishing she had the grace and confidence of her toddler-aged daughter.
When caring for his wife with myelofibrosis, Ed Bartholemy focused on making her life as fun and positive as possible, despite her limitations.
Being a caregiver to someone with a myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) — a group of blood cancers that begins in the bone marrow — includes providing both practical and emotional supports, explained Ed Bartholemy.
Bartholemy, who was one of the eight honorees during the 11th annual MPN Heroes® recognition event, was a caregiver to his wife, Nancy, who had myelofibrosis for 40 years before the disease went into remission in 2021 thanks to a stem cell transplant. As her disease progressed before the transplant, it became more difficult for Nancy to take care of herself and complete household tasks, such as cooking and cleaning.
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However, another major aspect of cancer caregiving is just being a friend to the loved one with cancer and making their “limited world as fun and as good as it could be,” said Bartholemy, who is also a member of the MPN Research Foundation Board of Directors.
Transcript
Well, a lot of (cancer caregiving) is practical. You know, there's things that the patient can no longer do, eventually I was doing the laundry and the cooking and all the household stuff, and also taking care of her medications and things like that. But I think the more important part of it really is being a friend and being a partner. And you know, her life was limited by her disease. So, we tried to make that limited world as fun as it can be, as good as it can be.
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