In 2023, Tammi Keitsock ’26 was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, endured intense chemotherapy to treat the disease, and had a bone marrow transplant. She lost her hair and was twice confined to the hospital for 30 days.

In May, she graduated with a master’s degree in athletic training.

“I first noticed it because I was bruising for no reason. I would wake up and have bruises,” she explains. Usually very active, she was “super out of breath and winded just going up the steps.”

In May of 2023, her doctor sent her to the emergency room at Penn Medicine, where she was diagnosed, admitted, and began her first 30-day stay.

“The chemo got my white blood cell count down,” she recalls, but it impaired her immune system and necessitated hospital confinement.

Keitsock continued receiving weekend chemotherapy treatment once a month until her bone marrow transplant—and another 30-day hospital stay—in November of 2023. After avoiding crowds for 100 days, she was told she could pursue her dream of earning a master’s degree in athletic training.

In May of 2024, a year after her original diagnosis, Keitsock enrolled in Neumann’s program.

But in early February of 2025, she noticed four red dots on her skin.

“It came back in my skin instead of my blood, a mutation. It’s a rare complication but not as serious as being in the blood.”

The relapse and new treatment affected her schedule with classes and clinicals, but Keitsock forged ahead, determined to stay on track to earn her degree.

“It wasn’t terrible compared to 2023,” she says, “and my teachers here were super accommodating and helpful.”

Her last chemotherapy treatment was on July 22, 2025. That’s when she rang the bell at the Perelman Center as a sign that she had completed her cancer treatment.