Mission at Work: Linda Abrams

My Mission at Work is my Mission at Home and can be summed up in this picture of my family.  My mission?  To keep this family whole.

My name is Linda Abrams, and I’ve been working at Charles River for nearly three years as Manager of the Molecular Biology Department at the Malvern branch of Biopharmaceutical Services.  That’s me on the left in the picture, along with my family at a Phillies game.  The scruffy-looking guy in the sunglasses is my husband Marc.  The two cuties are our rockin’ sons, Jake (4 years old) and Michael (6 years old).

Three and a half years ago, I never imagined that such a seemingly common picture of our family would even exist.  At the age of 35, my husband was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer.  No wife and mother of two little kids imagines that something like this would ever happen to her husband at such a young age.  The five year survival rate of my husband’s disease is around 3%.  Pretty grim.  Given that my husband and I both pursued post-graduate studies and careers in Cancer Research, the diagnosis felt ironic and cruel.  We had a crushingly realistic understanding of the disease and the uphill battle Marc would soon face.

We are fortunate that Marc found exceptional surgeons and oncologists to guide him through his treatment.  He endured surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.  Additionally, he received a relatively new biological therapeutic agent.  It is drugs like these that we support with our work at BPS on a daily basis.

Against the odds, today there is no evidence of disease recurrence in Marc.  I am aware that the cancer may return, but I feel strongly that the work my department performs brings us closer to more effective treatments with fewer side effects.  Should the cancer return, my hope is that a new generation of therapeutics will be available to treat my husband.

I am thankful to have the opportunity to work at Charles River assisting in the development of new therapies for diseases such as Colon Cancer.  And I am even more thankful to come home every day to my family.  Whole.

Go Phillies!

-Linda Abrams, Manager Molecular Biology, Malvern, PA