Diary of a DreamGirl
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Pia Awal |
Until June 2002, Pia Awal had always been perfectly healthy. Then just days after her 27th birthday, she was suddenly diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML).
An inspiration to all who know her — her friends, family, and her students at Manhattan’s prestigious Dalton School, where she taught second grade for many years — Pia fought the cancer with fierce determination, a sense of humor, and a resilient spirit.
In March 2003, after surviving several grueling rounds of chemotherapy, she was declared cancer-free. A marriage proposal from Tim and planning their wedding signaled what was sure to be a bright future.
On June 17, following a routine visit to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Pia learned that her cancer had returned. Her best chance to survive the relapse, recommended her doctors, was to undergo aggressive chemotherapy, followed by a stem-cell transplant -- not an easy road.
“I was cancer-free for almost two years, was recently engaged and Tim and I were preparing for our future,” recalls Pia. “The thought of losing my hair, canceling our engagement party and maybe even postponing our wedding crushed me. My life was not my own.”
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Pia Awal - During Treatment |
Admitted for an intense round of chemotherapy, Pia was soon to experience the side effects of treatment. “Having to travel down this road again was the last place I thought I would be,” she remembers. “I attended a Look Good…Feel Better session at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center six days after I was diagnosed with a relapse of AML,” she continues. “There were about 10 women, all patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering, pushing our IV poles into the room to talk about something central to our womanhood – our beauty.”
Through the two-hour session, Pia and the other women learned the tools to help cope with the side effects of their chemotherapy. “To learn about beauty and makeup was exciting, but to participate in the session with other women who, like me, had cancer was transformative. Each woman shared an experience similar to mine,” Pia says. “We were united by our cancer and would likely lose our hair and see changes in our physical self and experience a fundamental change in who we were. Yet, through the support of the Look Good…Feel Better program, we would overcome these challenges.”
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Pia Awal - As the Dreamgirl |
Through the help of her family, friends and complete strangers, a campaign, Matchpia, was launched to help her find a suitable stem-cell donor. The donor Pia needed was someone who had the same genetic typing as her and therefore, had to be from the same South Asian background. Pia was immensely fortunate to find an identical match in October 2004 and received a stem-cell transplant from her anonymous donor on November 24, 2004 at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Center.
Pia and Tim were happily married in July 2005. They, along with their baby (cat) Alli are now back on the East Coast where Pia continues her healing process. An important part of this process for Pia is to empower and help other young patients going through cancer treatment.
Pia was selected as Look Good…Feel Better’s 2006 DreamGirl, an honor bestowed on a program patient graduate for the DreamBall, the LGFB annual fundraising gala. Using this platform, she has acted as a national ambassador for the LGFB program, taking her experiences to others who might find themselves in the same situation she was in just a few years ago. She has also had the opportunity to interview other LGFB program graduates and capture their stories so they could be shared with other women in the midst of their cancer journey. As the blog-mistress of "Pia's Look Good. . .Feel Better Chronicles" (http://diaryofadreamgirl.blogspot.com ), she has a forum to share her amazing story, as well as the stories of the women she has met at Look Good. . .Feel Better programs during the last year.
“It might sound cliché, but it’s important to know that you are not alone in your fight against cancer,” says Pia. “With Tim, my family, friends, doctors, Look Good...Feel Better and other resources, I had an incredible support system and I don’t know what I would have done without them.”
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