Jama Beasley is a 8-year Survivor who is a Levy Lymphomaniac (graduate vaccine patient). Her time is spent befriending newly diagnosed lymphoma patients, doing research for them, and public speaking regarding her experiences as a cancer patient. She credits her remission to Dr. Ron Levy’s human specific, idiotype, antibody vaccine from 1995, a supporting family, and her “wicked” sense of humor.
Jama was diagnosed with B Cell, Follicular, Large & Small Cleaved, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Stage III-B in August 1994 at age 46. She had a significant abdominal mass that had compromised her heart. She took CVP chemotherapy alternating with Fludarabine for 8 courses. The original mass was reduced by 80%. With this goal met, she subsequently joined Dr. Levy’s vaccine program at Stanford University.
Jama was diagnosed by accident when she sustained a serious fall at work and had a MRI to determine back injury. She had seen 6 different doctors over a 12-month period of time at Sansum Medical Clinic in Santa Barbara, CA before the fall because she experienced night sweats and a low-grade fever; however, those physicians failed to diagnose her lymphoma. She brought her own lawsuit against Sansum without an attorney, as no lawyer would take the case, for Failure to Diagnose Cancer that was settled out of court to her satisfaction. A condition of that settlement was mandatory physician education in diagnosing lymphoma and other cancers.
“I have lived on a mountain top in Sardinia, Italy with 40 men, worked through college as a backup singer in Nashville’s country music scene, been a paralegal, executive secretary for a bank, a flooring store controller, a general contractor, and a cattle rancher in Texas. I am most proud to have been the mother of Brett and Laren Beasley and wife to Larry for 34 years. Nothing prepared me for the adventure and challenge that having lymphoma brought into our lives (or maybe it was all basic training for Lymphoma 101). And yes, JAMA is my real name!” (Journal of the American Medical Association)
Jama and Larry Beasley live in Redding, CA and will continue to help those patients and their families that cross her path.
