On May 3, 2018 Elisa (Lisa) Miaelle Canty courageously lost her battle with Castleman disease. Elisa was born August 23rd, 2003 at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska to Diana Watson and Royce Hughes, both parents at the time were active duty army soldiers, as is her stepfather Maurice Watson. As a military child, she moved from Alaska, to Louisiana, and then finally to Fort Carson, Colorado.
Lisa had a love for horseback riding, gymnastics, and track. She was a continuous honor roll student and in 5th grade was selected to tour the White House. She later found her passion for band and played the clarinet, percussion, and the xylophone. She also had a love for dance, skateboard, riding her bike, riding motorcycles, and going to the gym.
Lisa was diagnosed with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease in February of 2018, during her 9th grade year. She spent 12 weeks in the hospital battling this disease and endured respiratory failure, kidney failure, enlarged spleen, enlarged lymph nodes, liver issues, diabetes, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, pneumonia, c-diff, hallucinations, bone marrow malfunction, and high and persistent fevers. Throughout all of this she loved being with her family and continued to fight and stay positive throughout her illness. She was the epitome of a fighter and she taught people how to live.
She was a warrior and will continue to inspire and drive everyone to raise awareness and fight harder to find a cure and take down this disease. Please consider donating to help find a cure.