Eli
June 16, 2021
Hockey. It’s a tough sport. A game of mental and physical strength. It takes years of practice, hours on the ice and a lot of determination and passion. It’s a sport for relentless athletes full of tenacity and vigor. For Eli, hockey was simply his life. At just 11-years-old, he was traveling across Wisconsin and Minnesota to play, even skating with the older kids. An active and energetic young boy, no one would’ve known Eli was sick – not even himself.
In 2017, Eli’s mother, Corrie, a nurse practitioner, noticed what she thought might be petechiae on Eli. Petechiae is red spots due to bleeding under the skin. She brought him in to get blood work done. Her fear was turning into reality – Eli was diagnosed with high-risk T cell leukemia.
Not long after, Eli began chemotherapy—a treatment that lasted nearly three and a half years. His rambunctious and active self turned incredibly ill and unable to even walk at times, let alone do the things he loved like play hockey.
“The first year was very rough,” said Corrie. “Since then, he’s been getting stronger.”
The day he was diagnosed with leukemia marked his first of many blood transfusions. Before he could begin treatment, he needed multiple units of blood and platelets. Eli continued receiving transfusions through his first two years of chemotherapy – about 15 to 20 transfusions total. Eli would go from pale, sick and no energy to alert, talkative and energetic. That feeling is something he remembers well.
“It’s one of those things, you wouldn’t notice it before but once you got the transfusion, your energy came back,” said Eli.
Eli often needed transfusions to have procedures or to get treatment. His family is grateful they were able to receive those transfusions in Green Bay instead of having to go to Milwaukee where he received treatment.
“It brought the life back into him right before our eyes,” recalled Corrie.
Eli continued fighting, battling cancer with grit, courage, and the help of blood donors. Through his experience, his family learned more about the importance of blood and platelet transfusions. They knew other children fighting cancer might also need transfusions, which led Eli and his family to start coordinating blood drives.
“We started to see how many people can’t give or are afraid to donate. That’s what drove us to start doing blood drives,” said Corrie. “We thought blood drives would be one way to ensure the blood supply is always there.”
Each year, two blood drives are hosted in honor of Eli through The Community Blood Center.
“For us, it’s just been trying to bring awareness to the need,” explained Corrie. “It’s not just cancer patients but so many others who require blood.”
Each drive, they try to do better than the last, hoping to encourage more people to donate the lifesaving gift that helped Eli through his medical journey.
In December 2020, Eli reached an incredibly special milestone. He celebrated the end of his chemotherapy treatment by ringing a bell.
“There was a time I don’t think anyone thought we would get there. The gratitude I have inside – I don’t even know how to express – for the nurses, doctors, the people that give blood. Everyone that got us there,” said Corrie.
Eli is considered high-risk for relapse, so he continues to travel to Milwaukee each month for check-ups and other health concerns, but he’s happy to feel more like himself again.
“I’m getting a lot of my energy back,” said Eli. “Playing hockey and living a normal life again.”
At just 14-years-old, Eli understands what donating blood really means. It’s so much more than an hour of someone’s time. It has the possibility of giving children, just like Eli, their lives back.
“There’s a lot of people that need blood,” said Eli. “If you’re able to, just give blood any chance you can.”