as a dedicated follower of edua Bartholomew and her inspiring Journey it is with a heavy heart that I write this piece hearing about her diagnosis with chronic myoid is incredible leukemia is undoubtedly shocking news but as someone who has seen her strength and resilience over the years I am confident that you will face this Challenge headon on the latest installment of sunrise edua bartholomy shared a heart-rending revelation she has been diagnosed with cancer and was visibly emotional during the broadcast as I a devoted follower share my personal Journey have recently been diagnosed with chronic myoy leukemia often referred to as CML um the mother of two expressed that it was exceptionally beneficial she mentioned that it could be managed with a daily uh pill with proper self-care she assured everyone that she would be a full recovery from the cancer and so uh as per the leukemia Foundation chronic myid leukemia uh represents an uncommon form of cancer that targets the bloodstream and the marrow inside bones uh uh CML causes the bone marrow to produce too many white blood cells called granulocytes uh these cells often called blasts from leukemia uh tend to accumulate within the bone marrow uh disrupting the process of uh of generating regular blood cells uh the cells also spill out of the bone marrow and circulate through the body via the bloodstream about 330 cases of chronic myid leukemia are identified in Australians annually making up a tiny fraction of less than 0.1% of all cancer diagnoses as a devoted follower I'd like to share an insight about chronic myo leukemia um while it can happen at any stage of life it is significantly more prevalent in the individuals over the age of 40 in fact this demographic makes up nearly 70% of all diagnosed cases and it also um occurs more frequently uh in men than women um uh typically chronic myoid leukemia usually advances gradually during initial period moving steadily through three distinct stages uh chronic accelerated and blast which can span from several weeks to months uh as a devoted adherent I've come to understand that over 90% of individuals are diagnosed during the early chronic stage of this condition in this stage the blood counts will generally stay within normal ranges and the percentage of blast cells in both the blood and and bone marrow is typically 5% or less um most people display few if any troubling symptoms of their disease in The Chronic phase um they uh approximately 5% of chronic mood leukemia cases can transition from a relatively stationary state to a more rapidly advancing one during this accelerated stage an elevation in Blast cells within the bone marrow and blood might occur uh in its natural course Advanced chronic myo leukemia might evolve into a fast moving form of CML uh similar to acute leukemia but it's important to note that this transformation occurs less than 5% of the time uh the risk is lowered to just 1% for patients who have a positive response to drun therapy double approximately 2third of of blast phase chronic myogenous enemia cases evolve into a leukemia similar to acute myoid leukemia while the rest transform into one resembling acute lymphoblastic leukemia and while treatment is largely dependent on the phase of the disease age and health most patients will be treated for CML with drugs called tyrosine kinas Inhibitors uh tkis and these drugs block the activity of an enzyme called BCR able which prevents the growth and proliferation of these leukemic cells