My husband, Donald, and I had been dating for less than a year in June 2010, when he was diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

We came to MD Anderson the following year because we hadn’t seen any improvement in his condition, even after several months of lymphoma treatment with a local provider. 

Thanks to MD Anderson, my husband was in remission by early 2012 — and I was on a mission to become...