Battling cancer before you turn 25, when you're getting married and expecting a baby, is a hard blow. HOW TO HELP This year's holiday appeal marks the 32nd year of The Ledger's Newspaper with a Heart campaign. There are no overhead costs.
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What's even worse is having the cancer come back within months of the treatment you hoped would cure it. That's what happened this year. And this time, standard chemotherapy and radiation aren't enough. Hammerschmidt is in Tampa, hospitalized at Moffitt Cancer Center, recovering from high-dose chemotherapy strong enough to kill his cancer cells and bone marrow. He received an infusion of baby stem cells, immature blood cells collected previously from his own blood, last week.