Our Mission
Our Mission is to increase bone marrow donor and blood cancer awareness throughout the community. Our priority is to educate people regarding the process, procedure, and outcome on how to save lives via the bone marrow registry. Our goal is to raise funds that will go towards the expenses for the bone marrow kits to be processed and to continue our annual event. We hope that we can create a sense of cohesiveness throughout the community by making the knowledge available. In effort to do this, we provide an annual friendly and fun charity concert and bone marrow drive in the metro-Detroit area.
Meet Taylor Lang
Hello, I’m Taylor and I’m the President and Founder of Rockin’ for a Match (RFAM). Thanks for stopping by. It’s nice to meet you! I’m also a nine-year cancer survivor from stage 4 Lymphoma (insert happy dance). I’m so thankful for this organization; the volunteers, the performers, the venues, the community, and the donors! I am elated to be able to be part of a team that helps provide hope to blood cancer patients in need. RFAM started as a 501c3 nonprofit organization in 2011 and I am humbled and honored to continue paying it forward each year.
I am a Certified Health Coach by day and Philanthropist by night. I help people with chronic illnesses lead a life towards chronic wellness. I’ve been through the ringer with not only the disease, but side effects that come with the treatments. Since I was diagnosed, I’ve overcome many chronic illnesses myself; fatigue, obesity, migraines, insomnia, digestive problems, etc. I know there is a placed for conventional medicine. Heck, I wouldn’t be here without it. We don’t have control over everything; our genes, environmental factors, contaminated food/water, etc. Instead, I focus on what we do have control over; the food on our plate, relationships, physical activity, spirituality, career, and all of the other food that fills us up off our plate. I walk side by side with clients to help them achieve their optimal wellness through lifestyle changes that are sustainable over time.
How did Rockin’ for a Match begin?
On October 15, 2010 our beloved Taylor Lang (Kanas), at age 26, was given the biggest challenge of her life. She was diagnosed with a very rare form of Lymphoma called ALK Negative Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma. ALK Negative Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma is a very rare, aggressive form of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. She successfully underwent the standard regime of chemotherapy for T-cell lymphoma. She as usual, proved that if she is going to do anything she will do it in style, donning a bald head and fabulous wigs looking just as, if not more incredible than ever! Unfortunately, it was not clear skies ahead and Taylor was given yet another obstacle to overcome…
On February 15, 2011 Taylor was facing a bone marrow transplant. The procedure would have utilized her own cells that had been harvested the week prior. She noticed some new lumps on her neck, although the doctor seemed relatively unconcerned, he wanted to run a CT scan to be sure. The results of the CT were alarming which triggered an emergency biopsy. Everyone’s fears unfortunately were confirmed and the lumps on her neck were in fact a relapse of the disease and not localized inflammation.
Taylor was no longer able to use her own cells and she had to go through some very intense chemo, in hopes to put her back in remission so she could undergo the bone marrow transplant. After the tissue typing that was performed she received news that she had rare bone marrow. There is only one person in the world (on the registry) that matched the preliminary tests. Unfortunately, after further testing, that person was not the match for Taylor. The doctors offered another option that involved using umbilical cord stem cells. This is the riskiest transplant of them all. As Taylor’s cancer was sure to progress, this was her only fighting option.
Taylor underwent a double cord stem cell transplant on June 29th 2011. Despite all the trials and tribulations, she is doing very well. Taylor and her team are involved in raising awareness and have since created “Rockin’ for a Match.” Beyond raising awareness, our goal is to help raise funds for people needed on the bone marrow registry. We appreciate all your support in efforts to do so!
Story written by Lynsey Ramage