The multiple myeloma community has lost one of its best-known patient voices.

Pat Killingsworth died earlier today, his 60th birthday, of complications stemming from multiple myeloma and the treatments he had received for the disease. He was at Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville, Florida, in the company of his wife Pattie and other family members.

Pat was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in April, 2007. Soon after his diag­nosis, he began writing regularly online about the disease and his experience with it, and in 2010 he became the Beacon's first patient columnist.

Since then, Pat has written a total of 140 columns for The Beacon ^[1], covering just about every topic one can imagine related to life with multiple myeloma. Pat had a talent for making difficult topics easy to understand, and he also wrote honestly and openly about the challenges he and other myeloma patients face. As a result, Pat's columns were consistently among the Beacon's most popular.

Pat also continued to write on his own and engaged in many other ways with patients and caregivers through­­out the United States. He visited with support groups, spoke at conferences, and had essays and other works pub­lished online and in print. It was not long until he became one of the best known members of the myeloma community.

When Pat's journey with multiple myeloma started in 2007, he and his wife were working full time as realtors in Wisconsin. His doctors found a number of bone lesions that required treatment with radiation, and Pat also started continuous therapy with Revlimid ^[2] (lenalidomide) and dexamethasone ^[3].

Four years later, Pat relapsed, was treated with Revlimid, Velcade ^[4] (bortezomib), and dexamethasone, and underwent his first stem cell transplant. He did not respond particularly well to the transplant, and therefore received consolidation therapy with Revlimid, Velcade, and dexamethasone – drugs he continued to be treated with, off and on, for the next few years. His bone lesions also started to cause him problems again, requiring him to undergo another course of radiation therapy and, later, a hip replacement.

Eventually, Pat switched to treatment with Pomalyst ^[5] (pomalidomide) and dexamethasone, and then Kyprolis ^[6] (carfilzomib), cyclophosphamide ^[7] (Cytoxan) and dexamethasone prior to undergoing a salvage stem cell transplant. That transplant – his second – was soon followed by another.

Pat's decision to undergo the additional transplants last year was not an easy one for him. He had delayed his first transplant, did not respond well to it, and did not find a lot of support for further transplants when he consulted with several myeloma specialists.

Yet the transplants, combined with intensive combination therapy before and afterward, did succeed in putting Pat's disease into remission. As a Christmas present this past December, Pat got the news that he was “myeloma free.” He was elated, and, in his final column ^[8] for The Beacon, he wondered: “Dare I hope for more than a year or two of precious life? Dare I dream about the future again?”

Unfortunately, Pat was not able to hope and dream much longer. He was hospitalized a week ago with pneumonia that led to a very high fever. While he was in the hospital, Pat's doctors discovered that, in addition to his infection, his kidney and liver had been damaged. It was not clear, Pat wrote in a comment on his last column, whether the damage was due to the severe infection, the treatments he had received, or both.

Pat also developed a platelet disorder – thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura – that resulted in a brain hemorrhage. He lost the ability to breathe on his own and, not long after friends and family held a small celebration at Pat's bedside today to mark his 60th birthday, the decision was made to remove him from life support.

Members of the myeloma community will remember many things about Pat. Some will recall his honesty and openness. Others will rightly focus on his commitment to patients and caregivers being educated about multiple myeloma, and being actively involved in the treatment and management of the disease.

It would be a mistake, however, if one of the strongest memories of Pat was something other than the fact that he appreciated so much everyone who let him into their lives. As Pat wrote in one of the final comments ^[9] he left on a column here at The Beacon,

You are all so kind. I read each and every comment, and it fills my heart with hope. This might seem a bit "over-the-top," but it's true. Knowing so many are pulling for me – and that sharing details of my journey can help others – is … so important and touching to me. Things can seem pretty dark when faced with challenges like this.

Let slip the darkness, Pat. The light awaits. Godspeed.