No One Fights Alone
Marissa Ann McAneny came into this world on March 27, 1990 and the world instantly became brighter. She was a wonderful bundle of joy and happiness who changed John & Jacki’s lives immensely. Marissa was always smiling no matter what. From a very young age, she was a self-less and caring person. When her younger sister, Patrice, came into the picture when Marissa was just the age of 1, she immediately became overly protective of her sister and was constantly rushing to help her or take care of her in any way possible.
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From Marissa’s teenage years she knew that she wanted to be a nurse. She loved helping others and knowing that she made a small difference in someone’s day, so going into Nursing was Marissa’s one and only option for her career.
Marissa started her nursing career at HUP right out of college. She was offered a position on the same floor that she did her externship on. It was a Neuro Med Surg floor and Marissa absolutely loved it. She loved all of her co-workers, the patients that she met, and their families. She helped so many patients and families in her 2 year run on that floor and when a new opportunity opened up, Marissa was very hesitant to take it. She was offered a position on the Labor & Delivery floor at HUP, and this was a floor that Marissa had always wanted to get onto to. In the summer of 2014, Marissa took a leap of faith and transitioned into her new role as a Labor & Delivery nurse. Once Marissa adjusted to her new job, she crushed any self-doubt and surpassed all expectations. She was made to be a nurse, and she 100% was meant to be a nurse on an L&D floor. She truly loved every minute of it and always came home grateful for the job that she was able to do.
On January 8, 2016, Marissa had gone to the doctor’s that morning to get checked out. She hadn’t been feeling good for a little over a month now; she was excessively tired, getting bad headaches and random bruises began to appear on her body. Later that night her blood work came back and she got a call to go to an Emergency Department immediately. She and Stan headed down to HUP to get seen in their ER, where the nurses quickly triaged her and then a doctor came in to give them news that no one was expecting to hear. Marissa had Leukemia, and they needed to start further testing to find out which type. She was admitted into the hospital that night with so many uncertainties hanging in the balance.
Marissa graduated from St. Hubert’s High School in 2008 and went right into Widener University’s Nursing Program that fall. When deciding to go into nursing school, Marissa knew that it would not be easy and that she would have to give up a lot of social outings in order to stay in and study. This was perfectly fine with her, as long as she got her degree. The road to Marissa becoming Marissa McAneny, RN, BSN was not easy at all, but she never once gave up. She made her dream a reality in May 2012 when she graduated from Widener University. A few weeks later she passed her boards on the first try, which locked in her job offer from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
In the midst of going to nursing school and excelling in her career, Marissa was with the love of her life – Stan. They met in the winter of 2008 and were inseparable from the start. Their relationship was one of a kind, and the two of them were meant to be together. They started to plan their future and purchased a home together in September 2015. a few months after they moved in, Stan proposed to Marissa on Christmas morning in front of their families. He made her the happiest woman on earth that day and it was a day she always loved to talk about. With the proposal came Marissa’s endless ideas for her wedding. She was set on having her dream wedding in Mexico in march 2017. She quickly began planning everything and had it all figured out, all the way down to her guest list, just a couple of weeks after getting engaged. And then a new reality hit.
After further testing, it was confirmed that Marissa had Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and her oncology team needed to start treatment as soon as possible. She went through a round of induction chemo that lasted 7 days and ran for 24 hours each day. Marissa was in the hospital for a total of 4 weeks before she was able to go back home. During this time, Marissa, Stan, and their families received an overwhelming and humbling amount of support from people near and far. Within a week of Marissa’s diagnosis, her friends began selling orange “No One Fights Alone” bracelets to generate any sort of financial support for her. Marissa was in awe of the amount of money people were donating, and this was only the beginning.
The next few months consisted of Marissa recovering from her first round of chemo, many doctors’ visits, another round of chemo that kept her in the hospital for a few days (but Marissa spent most of those days wandering around the hospital visiting her friends), and the main focus was finding her a bone marrow donor. This was the big step that Marissa was preparing for. She had known about Be The Match, a bone marrow donor registry, since she was in nursing school. Marissa signed up to receive a kit to register as a donor and she kept going on and on about how amazing this was and how she could one day help someone who was sick. By the time she was diagnosed with AML, Marissa had been registered as a donor for close to 5 years. Her oncology team contacted Be the Match and they started the process of finding Marissa matches and then eventually a donor. The first person to match Marissa was herself. Be the Match called asking if she was still interested in being a donor because there was a potential match that she could donate to. With a few more probing questions, Marissa and her dad figured out that she had actually matched herself and not another patient. All in All, Marissa had about 41 matches from all over (42 if you include herself J) and this eventually led Marissa to her amazing donor who, it was later revealed, was a male who was only a year older than she was and he lived in Germany.
Marissa received her bone marrow transplant on April 28, 2016. The process to get her counts down to 0 across the board was grueling but she knew that this was her only chance at getting back to a new normal. Marissa stayed in the hospital for 5 weeks – for majority of that time she was not allowed to have any human contact, had to be cautious of everything that she was eating and drinking and could only be outside of her room after visiting hours were over. Eventually the restrictions slowly lifted one by one and she was allowed to start doing some normal things. Marissa was sent home at the end of May, but she still had to follow certain restrictions so that she would not get sick. This time was during her first “100 days” post bone marrow transplant (BMT). Marissa spent most of her summer inside her home, recovering and writing down an endless list of things she was going to eat and things that she was going to do once she hit her 100 day mark. The BMT Team lifted Marissa’s restrictions just a few days shy of the 100 day milestone, and she had never been more excited to start living again.
Marissa enjoyed the rest of her summer as much as she could but she was still recuperating, her body was put through a lot in the past few months and with a BMT came many potential risks and complications. She got a puppy, a mini golden doodle named Dempsey, who she absolutely loved! She received good news too – her body was adjusting to the donor cells and there were no leukemic cells in her bone marrow. But this good news was short lived. Eventually, Marissa started to feel the same original symptoms again. The day after labor Day she went back down to HUP’s ER, where she was informed that her AML was back again. Marissa had to be admitted back into the hospital. She had to go through another round of induction chemo. She also had to receive another mini bone marrow transplant. Luckily, her amazing and generous donor was willing to donate to her again. Marissa stayed in the hospital for another 5 weeks, receiving the mini BMT toward the end of her stay. She was released a few days later and the day after Marissa was discharged, she hopped on a plane (with the doctors approval) with her sister and all of her best friends to celebrate her best friend’s upcoming wedding. She was tired of being held back and wanted to get back to living her life as much as she possible could.
After this relapse, Marissa was back on the right track and her body was taking to the donor cells extremely well. She had many complications along the way but she overcame each one and kept moving forward toward the next goal. While Marissa was still recovering, and she was able to see a light at the end of the tunnel, she resumed planning her dream wedding in Mexico. She finally was able to set a date: March 17, 2018. Throughout 2017, Marissa did everything in her power to find the new normal for her life. She spent a lot of time with her puppy, she traveled as much as she could, and she made sure that she paid it forward to others battling blood cancers. In honor of her 1st Re-Birthday (1 year post BMT), she held a benefit where she donated all of the money that was raised to families who were going through the same thing that she and her family did. She also donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, an organization that became near & dear to her heart.
March 2018 quickly came and before she knew it, Marissa was flying to Mexico with Stan and their families and friends. They had about 90 guests who came to their destination wedding in Riviera Maya, Mexico. It was exactly what they wanted – a long weekend of celebrating their love for each other. On Saturday, March 17, 2018, Marissa FINALLY got to marry the man of her dreams, Stan. It was a beautiful night filled with fun and dancing. That particular weekend holds so many amazing memories for Marissa’s loved ones. When Marissa & Stan returned, her focus was now on getting back to work. She was supposed to start coming off some of her meds and the doctors said that they were hoping to get her back to work sometime in May or June. Marissa was determined to get back to the work that she loved doing, especially since she had not been able to work since January of 2016.
In the midst of coming back from Mexico, Marissa started to notice random symptoms going on: sharp, painful headaches that came out of nowhere, a tingling sensation in her legs, and hard lumps in her chest. In the middle of April the doctors started to look into the reason for the lumps. The scans, tests, and biopsies took a bit to get done and at the end of April it was finally confirmed what was going on. The day before Marissa’s 2nd Re-Birthday, she was told that her AML was back but this time in the form of Myeloid Sarcomas. The lumps that were in her chest were actually the AML finding another way to survive in Marissa’s body, this time outside of her bone marrow. This hit Marissa and her family harder than the original diagnosis; Everything that they thought the future held for Marissa was now uncertain.
Two days after Marissa got the news that her AML was back, she held her 2nd Re-Birthday fundraiser. She raised money again for families and this time signed up over 50 people to be potential donors through Be the Match. What people didn’t know that day was that Marissa was about to go through another battle all over again. She did not want to make that day about her, so she told her family and friends to not say anything and she made it very clear that she would not be keeping a single cent of the money that she raised. This situation shows exactly who Marissa was – giving and caring for others even when she herself was sick too.
About 3 days later, Marissa went to HUP for a doctor’s visit and she was admitted to the hospital to start another round of induction chemo. The doctors figured out that the headaches that she was experiencing was because the AML had also made its way into her cerebral spinal fluid. The next few weeks were touch and go with many complications, ICU trips, and still an uncertain timeline of when Marissa would be able to go back home. Her AML came back with vengeance, but Marissa fought back with everything that she could. Eventually, after a 3rd ICU trip and too many complications that were compromising her body, there was nothing left for the doctors to do. On Sunday, June 10th, 2018, Marissa passed away after a nearly 2 and a half year battle with AML. Through it all, she endured everything that was thrown at her with a beautiful smile, dignity, and grace.
Since Marissa’s passing, her family and friends have made it their mission to keep doing the work that she had started. They are determined to keep paying it forward to those who are going through the same battle and to keep her memory alive. In order to do this, they started the nonprofit foundation – Marissa’s Mission: No One Fights Alone.
