Honoring Her Hero

Carrie Trahan donates to the FNIH in honor of her hero: her son, Kyle. "He is strong and keeps battling his disease and is overcoming it," explains Carrie. "He stays positive and is very grateful to be alive."

More than a decade ago, Kyle was being treated for a condition that caused skin tumors, when his dermatologist showed him a letter from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Researchers were looking into this skin condition and its connection to kidney cancer, from which Kyle's father had died. Two days later, Kyle and his brother Aaron flew from California to the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, where researchers uncovered that he had a rare kidney cancer called hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC). Incredibly, Kyle was the first patient found alive with this disease, about which researchers knew very little. Surgery was the only option.

"My wife and son got to my bedside 15 minutes before I was rolled into surgery to have my left kidney removed," recalls Kyle. "Hands down that was the most surreal moment in my life. I lay on a gurney and looked at myself in the form of my 4-year-old son. I was the same age when my dad had the exact same surgery and died months later. I had that moment of being my dad and I just couldn't believe this was going to happen again...but it didn't."

Kyle went home following surgery, and soon his family members were tested for HLRCC at the NIH. Neither his son nor Aaron were diagnosed with it. This explained the disease experienced by Kyle's father, aunt, grandfather and beyond. The genetic samples collected from Kyle's family were used by NIH scientists to study HLRCC closely and uncover the genetic marker for it. After a few years, they had even developed a simple blood test to identify patients with the disease and continue to explore treatment options.

"The NIH helped my family understand what happened to so many of them, why these people died and what was going on," says Carrie. "Now they know and can make choices and seek treatment. It's a miracle that they were able to do that in just one generation. I support the FNIH because a gift can help save people and entire families."

To learn how you can impact families at NIH, like the Trahans, with a planned gift, contact the Advancement department at advancement@fnih.org or (301) 402-5343.