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Were you diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma? Was someone close to you diagnosed? Do you need to find a connection with others who are having a similar experience as you or simply “get it?” Hodgkin’s International was established to be that place--not your hospital or physician’s practice, but a community of individuals who seek useful information, friendship and understanding.
As a small non-profit organization, we depend on the generosity of those who appreciate what we have built and are enthusiastic about our next steps:
Those are our goals; your gift on GivingTuesday will move us closer to achieving them. As you pause to celebrate Thanksgiving, and you reflect on your reasons for feeling gratitude, please consider Hodgkin’s International on GivingTuesday or with a year-end gift. Thank you. |
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Our Mission
Erin Cummings, our co-founder, explains who we are and what our mission is in this brief video.
Donate in honor of our fellow survivors
The funds we raise will provide us the opportunity to hire staff and obtain the necessary technology to insure that we reach Hodgkin’s survivors wherever they may be, anywhere in the world. We will be able to offer printed material as well as digital content on our website. We will be able to make connections with like organizations, share information, and participate in research projects. Our long range plans includes the ability to help fund research that is specifically designed to study long term effects. It is our mission not only to care for our fellow survivors, but to make sure that the next generation of survivors do not suffer the way we have.
Hodgkin’s International has lost several members of our survivorship community over the past couple of years. These people are our true heroes--courageous, determined, beautiful souls. They were all part of the very foundation of our organization and the reason that we will continue to keep fighting for ALL survivors of Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Hodgkin’s International has lost several members of our survivorship community over the past couple of years. These people are our true heroes--courageous, determined, beautiful souls. They were all part of the very foundation of our organization and the reason that we will continue to keep fighting for ALL survivors of Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Donor Stories
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Gift Supports Hodgkin’s International’s Mission and Its Founder Maria Ragucci considers herself to be lucky. Still, she’s faced a lot since her diagnosis in 1983 and has come to appreciate that Hodgkin’s International is a dedicated resource that helps direct individuals to the right care. Most everyone can remember what was going on in their lives when they learned about a serious diagnosis. Maria Ragucci had graduated from Harvard Law School and was in her second year working at a top Manhattan law firm. “It was unbelievably stressful--24/7—and a difficult work environment,” she recalls. It was during a regular medical appointment when Maria, age 27, heard the nurse practitioner say: what’s this swelling? “After she pointed it out, I looked in the mirror and saw that half my neck was distended. How could I have missed this?” X-rays revealed a mass in Maria’s chest, which led to a biopsy. “I was at work when the doctor called me and said: ‘You have Hodgkin lymphoma.’ “I didn’t know anything about Hodgkin’s, but I realized I needed to figure out what to do. I called one of the partners at the law firm and said, ‘I’ve got to go.’” It was 1983, and Maria soon understood that she would be faced with decisions. She wanted to have children, but MOPP--mechlorethamine, oncovin, procarbazine, prednisone--chemotherapy could have an impact on fertility. At the time, freezing one’s eggs was not an option. “Also, the tumor was wrapped around my heart,” she notes. Maria started out at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, but also saw specialists at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Sloan-Kettering Medical Center in New York. “Then a friend of mine, a doctor at Yale-New Haven Medical Center, suggested I see someone there,” she says. “The plan was to shrink the tumor with radiation, perform a splenectomy and then continue with radiation. They felt I had a 50 percent chance the treatment would work. “What were my options? I didn’t want to have the chemo; this treatment would give me a chance to preserve my fertility. I gritted my teeth and just did it.” Maria got through the treatment, went back to work and, in 1996--about 11 years later--gave birth to her son, Thomas. “The Uncertainty Is the Worst Part” Her health was fine for a number of years. “But as I went back for all my check-ups, I began thinking about how I’d had all this radiation, and I knew radiation was bad. At one point, I asked my doctor what my life expectancy was likely to be, and he essentially answered, ‘The same as everybody else.’ Really?” Maria decided to see a new oncologist at Sloan-Kettering and, for the first time, felt that someone was really going to manage her care. “Dr. Carol Portlock and her associate had read every page of my medical record, and they told me exactly how they were going to care for me. I remember sinking back in the chair and breathing a sigh of relief, because I had been worrying. The uncertainty is the worst part. “I was aware that breast cancer was a risk,” Maria says. “I was 50 when an MRI revealed a tiny spot. I couldn’t have more radiation, so I had a mastectomy, which was devastating at the time. But several months later, I decided to have a prophylactic mastectomy; I had my other breast removed. That was followed by a quick recovery emotionally. I didn’t want to face more testing and more anxiety.” Nor did Maria want more surgery. “I decided I didn’t want any reconstruction. I said: enough. It was many years before she met anyone else with Hodgkin lymphoma. “After a while, I decided to attend a support group,” she explains. “Sloan-Kettering had a women’s-only Hodgkin’s survivor group.” Someone at the group led her to Hodgkin’s International, which has come to mean a lot to her. “It’s a dedicated resource that can direct you to the right care,” Maria says. “Hodgkin’s is fairly rare, and many patients discover that their doctor doesn’t have any experience managing the late effects. Once you find Hodgkin’s International, you realize you’re not doing this alone.” These days, Maria, lives in Rye, New York, with her husband and is facing the late effects of radiation fibrosis that has damaged her heart valves and caused severe deterioration of her upper-body muscles and nerves. “I have a lot of fatigue. I can’t lift things and can only walk short distances. Every day, I try to outsmart my fatigue.” She has gathered articles from the Hodgkin’s International website for when she may need a valve replacement. Maria made a generous gift to Hodgkin’s International to show her appreciation and support for its mission: to be a place that is distinctly different from one’s hospital or physician’s practice--that is, a community of individuals who seek useful information, friendship and understanding. “Mostly, I wanted to support Erin Cummings, who established Hodgkin’s International,” Maria notes, “because I find her incredibly inspiring. Erin is dedicating herself to helping every one of us with Hodgkin’s by finding the best information and making it available. That’s very reassuring. I think a lot about where I direct my charitable giving. I tend to give to organizations that have a personal impact on people that I can see.” As she reflects on her life, Maria knows that, compared to many individuals, she is lucky. “I’m 67 now and, with every year, I’m thrilled. I love getting older.” |
Maria Ragucci enjoying a trip to Brussels, Belgium, with her son, Thomas.
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A Meaningful Gift That Reflects a Daughter’s Gratitude Rachel Anderson’s recent, generous gift to Hodgkin’s International was motivated by a daughter’s desire to honor her mother’s memory and in gratitude for what HI offers: timely information on how individuals diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma can take care of themselves. “After my mother was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 1968, she had a significant concern about recurrence,” says Rachel, a Unitarian Universalist chaplain and minister in the San Francisco Bay area. “It became a pretty constant, low-grade hum in the background. “Back then, cancer wasn’t discussed in a very forthright way, so my mother didn’t talk about it. I was 18 years old before I knew what kind of cancer she had. I knew my mother had a scar on her chest, so I made the assumption that she had breast cancer, which can have a genetic component, unlike Hodgkin’s.” Back then, late effects were neither understood nor described to patients. Diana Anderson was a reference librarian with a master’s degree from Simmons College. Her daughter, Rachel, was 15 months old when she was diagnosed. “Our family lived in New Hampshire, so my mother had her tumor removed at a New Hampshire hospital but chose Mass General Hospital in Boston for radiation,” Rachel explains. “My parents waited before having more children, because if you survived five years, your odds went up. At least, that’s my take on it.” Her two sisters are five and seven years younger than her. “A Person Who Just Makes Tumors” In the years after receiving radiation to the chest, Diana developed a tumor on her thyroid, then lymphoma cells in her stomach and, finally, lung cancer. “The thyroid tumor--a Hurthle cell tumor--was benign, but my mother had the complication of a lung embolism during the surgery,” Rachel explains. “After, the surgeon said he could see tissue damage from the radiation. She came through that, but a couple of years later she developed stomach problems and was diagnosed with an ulcer before she was finally found to have a MALT [mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue] lymphoma.” Diana had no context in which to understand the tumors she developed in the years after receiving radiation to the chest. “I remember my mother saying ‘Maybe I’m just a person who makes tumors,’” Rachel recalls. “Early on, no one was telling her the reason was that she had received an extraordinary amount of radiation in that general area. “Similarly, my mother thought she was out of shape and criticized herself for not being more aerobically fit. Finally, when she was in her mid-50s, one of her doctors said, ‘Well, you were irradiated, so your lungs don’t work at 100 percent.’” When Diana was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in 2002, her oncologist told Rachel’s father that it was probably caused by the radiation 35 years earlier. She died a month later, at age 64. “He assumed that her final illness was a result of the cure--a cure for which I am deeply grateful.” Her awareness of the role that late effects had on her mother’s health prompted Rachel to begin doing research. “I wanted to find other adults who are children of Hodgkin’s survivors from the 60s and 70s, because I’m curious about how those now middle-age people understand the ways their parents’ diagnosis and survival shaped their life.” That research brought her to the Hodgkin’s International Facebook page and then the website. “One of the things I appreciate about Hodgkin’s International is that, by sharing information with people about late effects, those people will know how their bodies were profoundly changed by treatment. I wish my mother had known that.” Rachel knows that she had her mother for 35 years. “That’s significant, and I’m profoundly grateful,” she says, adding that, if her mother been diagnosed several years earlier, she might not have received treatment that allowed her to raise her family. In her ministry, Rachel says she works at “the intersections where life and death meet. Growing up, one of the few places where you could wrestle with issues of life and death and what it means to be human--to know that we are alive and are going to die--was in a religious context. “Now I offer spiritual care and accompaniment to individuals considering their mortality. Since covid, I consult on memorial rituals, often coaching people as they hold their own rituals. I tell them: it’s never too late.” Rachel says her gift to Hodgkin’s International accomplished a number of things. “I keep my mother alive by making a gift in her memory to an organization that is providing resources, support, information and friendship to people around the world who share this common experience. In supporting the work they do, I’m helping them provide the information people need. “I feel great about it,” she says. “My mother was a reference librarian; she provided people with information. It was a meaningful gift for me to make. Like all good gifts, the person who makes the gift receives something wonderful in the process.” |
Rachel Anderson (right), with her mother, Diana, in 1990.
Your Gift Is Important to Hodgkin’s International
In the article here about her generous gift, Rachel Anderson beautifully expresses her motivation to support Hodgkin’s International: as a way to keep her mother alive; to encourage the resources, information and friendship that we provide; and to express her gratitude in a meaningful way. Her goals align with those of Hodgkin’s International. We want to reach survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma, wherever they are, with the most current information on risk factors and practices related to survivorship care. Indeed, her gift is being used to create awareness and to offer support and connection with others. Gifts such as Rachel’s allow us to advocate for Hodgkin’s survivors who don’t have access to care and to fund research on late effects. The fact is, as more individuals--survivors, their family members and friends, in addition to clinicians and researchers with an interest in Hodgkin lymphoma--visit our website or our Facebook page, we understand the need for Hodgkin’s International to grow and expand. We can have an even greater impact. Philanthropic support through small gifts and large gifts will allow us to get to that next step, where: . . . we can hire staff, such as writers and designers . . . we can upgrade our technology to provide more sophisticated presentations and virtual meetings . . . we can print and mail materials--something many people have requested . . . we can hold regional and national meetings, which will accomplish a great deal . . . we can create meaningful connections with similar organizations in order to share useful, current information. Hodgkin’s International is a volunteer organization in its infancy. Our mission is the same as when we began: to make sure that Hodgkin’s survivors keep surviving--and that they know we’re here, we care, and we’re able to help. We need your help to get there. Thank you. |
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If you prefer to mail your donation, our mailing address is: Hodgkin's International 47 N William Street, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 |
