Newport rallies around Aspen Peck, now cancer free after anonymous donor gives bone marrow

NEWPORT — The cells of an anonymous 23-year-old female are running through the bone marrow of 20-month-old Aspen Peck. They're what allows her to grow, to walk, to talk, to play with her older brother, and to hug her mom and dad.

The cells of this unknown stranger are what has given Aspen a future that, back in January, her parents and doctors weren't sure that she had because of a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia. They type of AML Aspen was diagnosed with is rare and extremely progressive. 

Thanks to that donor, Aspen is currently cancer free. 

"She's the reason why my daughter's alive right now," said Ashley Peck, the mother of Aspen. 

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'She's going to survive this' 

Prior to her diagnosis, Aspen had several ear infections a runny nose, and a fever that lasted for seven days. Because the fever lasted for so long, doctors advised Ashley to bring Aspen into the emergency room to get blood work done. 

So on Jan 15, days after her first birthday, Aspen was taken to the emergency room with what her parents thought was either an ear infection or a urinary tract infection. Her mother Ashley was with her when blood was drawn, and was there when doctors came back with the diagnosis of leukemia. 

Previously:Bone marrow drive to be held at Rogers High in hopes of finding match for baby battling cancer

When lab tests eventually revealed Aspen had AML, Ashley said doctors told her and her husband Troy that because the cancer was so aggressive, they could put their daughter directly into hospice care, but that wasn't an option for the family. 

"Immediately, my husband and I together in unison, without even looking at each other, both said, 'No,'" Ashley said. "We're going to fight this, and I told the doctor that she will be brought around to medical conferences one day, because she's going to survive this ... And the doctor looked at me and said, 'Good choice, let's fight this.'"

Newport has lent a helping hand

Since Aspen's diagnosis, the Newport community has rallied around her and her family. Ashley is a graduate of Rogers High School, and her mother still lives in the community. 

When Aspen was placed in the AML study, Ashley said the doctor overseeing it said she'd need a bone marrow transplant right away, and the Newport community showed up in droves to help find a match. 

"My mom pretty much had people lining up out the door. My mom lives in the Fifth Ward down across the street from St. Agustin's Church and the Fifth Ward, all of Newport, they came together," she said. 

Aside from the bone marrow drive, Ashley said Newport residents also have helped them out financially. A GoFundMe for Aspen has raised nearly $100,000. 

"We've had people even from Newport who have offered us organs, if Aspen needs organs. Like, if someone in their family may be passing away and is an organ donor," she said. 

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Local restaurants and an artist have hosted fundraisers or given the family donations for young Aspen. Newport has surrounded the Peck family with support and love, which Ashley said has been just amazing. 

"When you're in that type of situation where you feel so lonely and helpless, and my mom's calling me telling me that 10 people dropped cards off at our house that day, people are touched by it, and it really makes a difference," Ashley said. "I haven't even seen anybody face-to-face, because we've been so quarantined because of the pandemic, plus Aspen and her immune system."

Though the family currently lives in Cranston, Ashley said Newport is her community. It's her home. 

Donor gives Aspen a second chance at life

On April 15, Aspen received a bone marrow transplant from the anonymous donor. Though the Pecks don't yet know who that person is, or if she's from Newport, the family is grateful for her sacrifice that saved their baby's life. 

One hundred percent of the myeloid cells that are running through Aspen's body are from her donor, Ashley said, and last biopsy showed Aspen is cancer free. 

One day, the Pecks hope to met the young woman who saved their daughter's life. Until then, they can communicate with her through letters. 

"We were able to write her a letter, which we're going to send. For a year, we can communicate with her through Boston Children's (Hospital)," Ashley said. "We have to send it to Boston Children's and then they have to read it and make sure that there's no identifying information and no bribes. And then after this year of us communicating through the hospital, we're allowed to start communicating with just each other."

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If there's one thing Ashley wants the donor to know, it's that she gave her daughter a second chance at life. 

"That's invaluable. She's the reason why my daughter can give us hugs, and can walk, and can start to talk," Ashley said. 

Chemotherapy took its toll

Ashley said when children have bone marrow transplants, doctors bring them to the brink of death and then bring them back. "It's so true, because we almost thought we were going to lose her a couple of times during the bone marrow transplant," she said. 

When she was undergoing chemotherapy, Ashley said Aspen had mucositis, sores from the throat to the buttocks, so bad she would cry out and they couldn't hear her voice. 

"You're whole insides are covered in these sores, and we had to suction mucus out of her mouth in the morning, and she would vomit," Ashley said. "She had open sores all over her mouth that would just bleed, so her face would be like covered in blood.

"Then in the middle of it she developed VOD (Veno-occlusive disease), and her breathing started to become very rapid, because her liver became inflamed and huge."

Other organs also became enlarged, so Aspen had to be placed on a breathing machine and was in the intensive care unit for seven days. She hated having the mask on her face. Eventually, she had a drain placed in her liver. 

"She was in the hospital for two months, just with the bone marrow transplant," Ashley said. 

Still ... a long road lies ahead

Though Aspen is currently cancer free, she won't be deemed cured for five more years. Every three months she has to undergo a bone marrow biopsy and every six months she has a spinal tap.

She's also currently having liver issues. 

"We are monitoring her liver. We don't know why her liver's inflaming," Ashley said. "We have to go every week to the clinic and we have to run her blood, so she still has a central line in her heart."

Aspen also has post-traumatic stress disorder from the ordeal and is in early intervention developmentally because of the extended hospital stay. 

"Aspen had to relearn how to walk. She now has speech, (occupational therapy) and physical therapy, and we have the potential of having a liver biopsy soon to see what's going on with her liver," Ashley said. 

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Grateful for life

Because Aspen's type of cancer was so aggressive, Ashley said during her treatment, doctors were afraid they'd lose her. 

"They weren't sure they were going to be able to get her where she is," Ashley said. "I'm a mom, so it's like I never doubted my daughter was not going to make it. I was like, 'No, she's always going to make it. She's going to live, she's going to be fine. It's Aspen.'

"So to hear the doctors so elated that she's alive and she's growing makes me reflect on how much we've actually been through."

This "near death experience" has given Ashley and Troy a new outlook on life. 

"As a parent, you feel it yourself. I wish it was me, I wish it wasn't her," she said. "I know that Aspen's cancer can come back any day and cancer does not care what you're doing in life. Cancer will come, no matter what you're doing, so I think my husband and I live intentionally now.

"We try to set intentions with our family, and what makes us happy. We're just living life differently in just the simplest thing makes us happy now. Aspen eating Cheerios in the morning, because she couldn't eat three months ago."

Bethany Brunelle can be reached at bbrunelle@newportri.com  907-575-8528 or @bethanyfreuden1 on Twitter, Insta: bethanyfreudenthal,TikTok: thehijabicrimereporter, Muckrack: https://muckrack.com/bethany-freudenthal