Leukemia and Leprosy #AtoZChallenge2021

Boston Children's Hospital

The protagonist in my mystery series is an insurance investigator. Plots or subplots in the novels deal with several different illnesses or diseases, although none of the unusual or obscure conditions begin with the letter "L", such as sickle cell disease, gas gangrene, the thalidomide tragedy, and gene disorder. But subplots in the first and sixth novels focus on leukemia and leprosy.

My research of leukemia began when I worked in the cancer ward of a hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at a time when a diagnosis didn't often include a cure. Eventually, after taking up writing, I familiarized myself with Boston Children's Hospital and the Jimmy Fund in Boston where hope of successful survival from childhood leukemia and other forms of cancer reigns eternal.

Leprosy in the Hawaiian Islands, now known as Hansen's Disease, is a well-researched story of devastation and hopelessness. Its role in my sixth novel was not of an illness, however, but an example of how happiness ultimately comes to those who choose to be happy. Living conditions in the leper colony at Kalaupapa on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai in the 1800s was primitive; afflicted persons of all ages were shipped there from the other islands and left to fend for themselves until their death. For an in depth and enlightening story about this time in history, check out the best selling historical novel entitled Moloka'i by author Alan Brennert.

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