Keira Woods is 18 years old and says she's “definitely a Pisces.” She was born in Maryland on March 6, 2006, but spent most of her life in Pennsylvania. She is a middle child with an older brother, Connor (23), and a younger sister, Kendall (16). Her father is a retired naval aviator and served in the Navy Reserve, and her mother grew up in a Navy family. The Woods family has a golden doodle named Sailor, who is “a diva.”
Keira has done competitive and sideline cheerleading since she was in fourth grade. She was also president of her high school’s Team Unified Club, which promotes inclusiveness and helps students with special needs. She loves to travel, and her favorite country so far is Italy.
In April 2018, Keira was in sixth grade when she fainted in class. Back then, Keira had no idea that this was a warning sign. “My mom had braided my hair, and we found out that if you braid your hair too tight, you pass out. So, we just thought it was that. No one really thought it was anything because I was almost a teenage girl, just going to middle school,” Keira recalled.
The Woods family began to realize something was wrong with Keira when she switched primary care physicians and had blood drawn to get a baseline—which was routine for new patients. That's when they saw Keira’s platelet count rising very high, with no explanation for why. Over the next few months, Keira got blood drawn weekly to monitor her counts.
Towards the end of summer, Keira’s doctor sent her to a hematologist. She prefaced to the Woods family that it was a hematology-oncology unit, so there would be patients without hair who were going through cancer treatment. When they went to draw Keira’s blood, it was so thick from the platelets clotting that they couldn’t even get a quarter of a vial, and they needed six. The doctor decided to do a bone marrow biopsy instead.
Keira’s medical team was between two diagnoses: a rare autoimmune disorder, or Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), a rare blood cancer that is typically found in adults aged 60 and over. “No one really thought it was CML because it’s very rare. Only a little over 100 children are diagnosed every year, so we were thinking it was the autoimmune disorder,” Keira said.
On August 30, 2018, Keira had the biopsy. Typically, it takes a couple of weeks to get results, as they are sent away, and you can’t tell under the microscope. However, it was immediately evident that Keira had Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. The next day, Keira went to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to begin treatment.
The doctors put Keira on the newest Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (TKI), a targeted chemo used to treat CML. The chemo was so intense that her liver began to go toxic, so Keira and her family searched for other treatment options. They found an expert at CHOP, but he treats Acute Myeloid Leukemia. They decided to stay at CHOP, where they put Keira on a new TKI, Sprycel,which caused her even more side effects. Keira developed vision issues, gluten intolerance, and heart problems.
The Woods family was desperate for more options when Mrs. Woods decided to do a “deep dive” into Keira’s medical documents. She discovered that Keira had a double transcript—her ninth and 22nd chromosomes were switched in two places rather than just one, which prevented the chemos from working. With this information, they sought out Doctor Brian Druker at Oregon Health and Science University, the developer of the first TKI, Gleevac. Although he does not usually see patients, he had the Woods family fly out to meet him.
After their consultation, the Woods family realized that traveling to Portland every other week was not realistic, so they began to search for other doctors closer to home who might be willing to work with Dr. Druker. Unexpectedly, Mrs. Woods got a call from Dr. Rao at Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center, where the Woods family had inquired earlier that year. Dr. Rao wanted to check in on Keira, and upon hearing that the Woods family had met with Dr. Druker, they discovered that Dr. Rao and Dr. Druker worked together. Keira began her treatment at Hershey under Dr. Rao.
During this time, the focus was to control the cancer and keep her numbers low. Towards the end of Keira’s sophomore year of high school, however, the TKI stopped working, and Keira’s numbers began to rise. It became evident that she would need a bone marrow transplant. Keira was initially opposed to this, as she would have to start a more typical course of chemo following the transplant that would cause her to lose her hair.
“With the TKI, I had hair loss, but I was never bald. Of course, being a teenage girl in high school who was about to start senior year, I did not want that,” Keira said.
Nevertheless, the doctors tested Keira’s siblings to see if one of them would be a match. Connor came back as a half-match. Kendall, however, was a perfect match. Knowing that it was her best chance, Keira agreed to the transplant.
Keira’s doctors were eager to begin the quarantine process to prepare Keira for the transplant, but Keira had tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Philadelphia, so her team altered the schedule for Keira to see her favorite artist perform.
“I was like, ‘Guys. I got through the Ticketmaster war. I am not giving up my Taylor Swift tickets,’” Keira said.
Keira’s doctors told her that they hadn't had this request come from anyone before, but they came to the compromise that she would get to see Taylor Swift, but she would have to miss the end of her junior year. After the concert, Keira finished school early and spent the day before her quarantine with her friends at the Baltimore Aquarium, where she got to see her favorite animal, a sea turtle.
Keira went to the hospital on May 31, 2023. She was put on three different chemos—different from the TKI—the week before her transplant. “I basically did a month of chemo each day leading up to my transplant,” Keira said.
Keira had her transplant on June 5, 2023. Both Keira and Kendall slept through the transplant, and they only needed half of the bone marrow they initially anticipated. Although the transplant was successful, Keira’s battle didn’t end there. Following her transplant, Keira continued chemotherapy. She lost her hair and was vomiting constantly. Because of the medication Keira was on, she developed clostridioides difficile (commonly known as c. diff). Keira’s face and lips swelled from the vomiting, and she developed allergies to many medications.
Keira received many cards during this time, which she couldn’t touch because her immune system was so weak. Keira’s mom disinfected each card and put them in Ziploc bags so that Keira could read them. She taped the cards to her closet door. Keira’s mom also helped her hang a Taylor Swift flag in her hospital room and decorated the walls with sea turtles and posters of affirmations and Taylor Swift lyrics.
At the end of summer, Keira rang the transplant bell when she left the hospital and is cancer-free. The support from Keira’s family, Four Diamonds, Hershey medical staff and THON™ volunteers got Keira through this time. Her favorite nurse, Nicole, helped Keira shave her head when she began to lose her hair. Keira wrote many of her college application essays about her. Keira also met Jake, a nursing student from Messiah University, who came into Keira’s hospital room and sang “Teardrops on My Guitar” with her.
Keira was paired with organizations Alpha Gamma Rho and Phi Sigma Sigma, while she was going through treatment. When she paired with Alpha Gamma Rho, they sent her a box of letters and merchandise. Last spring, Keira spent the Blue and White Game with the Phi Sigma Sigma girls.
“I cannot say enough good things about AGR and Phi Sig,” Keira said. “They’re just amazing people. I just love them so much.”
Keira’s senior year was “a bit different compared to everyone else’s,” but she made the most of it. She was able to return to school during Homecoming Week and had a fundraising event called #KeiraStrong for her DonorDrive, where she sold t-shirts for their Homecoming white-out game. Keira was crowned Homecoming Queen!
Around the time of THON Weekend 2024, Keira had to make a big decision: where she would attend college in the fall. Keira wasn’t sure if Penn State was the place for her initially; she’s a self-proclaimed “warm weather person” and had been accepted to many great colleges. However, the members of her paired organizations convinced her that Penn State was the right choice.
Keira’s parents surprised her on her birthday with an enrollment deposit at Penn State, where she will begin her first year this fall, majoring in Biobehavioral Health. Keira hopes to go to nursing or physician’s assistant school after graduating from Penn State.
“I just know I want to work in a field where I can give back and help children like me. What Nicole was for me, I want to be for other children,” Keira said.
Keira is excited to begin her time at Penn State and continue to spend time with her paired organizations. She plans to get involved in THON!
If Keira could give any advice to herself at the time of her diagnosis, she would say, “Trust the things that are going to happen and trust yourself to know that everything you’re doing is for a good reason. Always accept help because you never know when you may need it. Know that people are going to be there for you, even if you don’t believe that they are. Chances are, they’re there for you.”