D-B grad celebrates new lease on life in Transplant Games

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August 11th, 2014 5:30 pm by Marci Gore

Ginger Carrick Curlee was just shy of her 40th birthday in 2008 when the stay-at-home mom was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. At the time, her two sons were just 7 and 2.

After an aggressive treatment protocol that included two rounds of chemotherapy, Curlee, a 1986 graduate of Dobyns-Bennett High School, received an allogeneic bone marrow/stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor through the National Bone Marrow Registry.

And although the treatments did what they were supposed to do, the fight against cancer took a toll on Curlee's body. She knew she needed to regain strength and muscle tone.

During that time, Curlee read an article in the newspaper of Cary, N.C., where she and her family now live, about Kim Estep Lampley, a double lung transplant survivor, who, at 52, swam at the World Transplant Games in Australia.

Curlee, a swimmer, was excited to learn that the transplant games feature a variety of sports.

"There are lots of fundraising events, like those for breast cancer, that involve running. But I don't run. These transplant games are something anybody can participate in," she said.

Curlee, the daughter of Herman and Patsy Carrick of Kingsport, had been a swimmer almost her whole life. She began swimming when she was just 7 for the Kingsport Barracudas in AAU swimming and then as part of D-B's high school swim team and even three more years at East Carolina University.

"I had grown up swimming. I was comfortable in the water. Swimming was always the best therapy for me," Curlee said.

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D-B grad celebrates new lease on life in Transplant Games