Gilead Sciences: Mother of Three Shares Her CAR T-Cell Therapy Journey: Kelly''s Story NORTHAMPTON, MA | ACCESSWIRE | September 30, 2022 | Kelly was getting ready to leave on a trip to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary when she started experiencing pain in her abdomen and discovered a lump on her neck. When the pain progressed to the point where it got worse when she laid down, she asked her husband, an emergency room doctor, what he thought. After a few phone calls to his colleagues working in oncology, they went to see a lymphoma specialist and Kelly underwent a CAT scan the day before her trip. The doctor called Kelly and her husband during their vacation and said they needed to talk when she got back. Kelly says she "just knew" it was cancer. When she returned from the trip, she was diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma. "It was earth shattering. Your whole world comes crashing down," she explains. "When cancer hits, nothing else matters." Kelly received six rounds of chemotherapy - one round every three weeks. But shortly after the chemo treatments ended, her pain returned.