Anyone can get cancer.
Since I was a young girl, every time I heard a cancer story my heart always dropped. The ongoing repetitions of little to no cure and fatality made me want to just wish it would never happen to me or anyone in my family... But as a child, you can only wish.
At the beginning of my sophomore year of high school, also a period where I am completely at teenage angst, I received the worst news ever. My grandma was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. Immediately, I thought the worst and wherever I went, the news followed, whether it was school or work, I was angry at God and could not understand how my grandma got cancer. In terms of health, she was always walking, ate well, and spent time with family every weekend, what did she/we do wrong? At the doctors' office, it was worse. All the negative outcomes I already knew just kept being repeated over and over again, except this time by a physician.
I lost my dear grandma last year, at the beginning of my sophomore year in college. While our family was told she would only survive a few months at the most, a miracle from somewhere up above, saved her and gave her 4 more years of life.
Today, my stomach no longer churns at the thought of cancer. But that is all thanks to the lessons I've been taught during the 4 years my grandma battled cancer. She was a true warrior just like all the other people who had or have cancer.
On September 22, 2019, I would like to honor all of the warriors with a marathon walk and as well as the doctors and researchers at the Dana Farber institute that helped out my grandma.