Kristen was diagnosed in July 2004 at age 14. She fought AML for a year before going into remission in march 2005. In september 2005 she relapsed and required a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor off of the bone marrow registry because she didnt match her siblings or her parents. In February 2006 she underwent a bone marrow transplant at childrens national medical center in washington dc. Even though it has been two years since her bone marrow transplant she still struggles with the complications from it, such as graft vs host disease and avascualr necrosis, which is going to require her to have multiple joints replaced. Despite going through four years of treatments she still has a great bubbly spirit and refuses to give up. She has made it her mission to educate the community about the importance of blood and bone marrow donation by speaking regularly for the red cross at events all over and writing an advice article about dealing with cancer geared towards kids for the organization childrens chance, which helps families of children with cancer.