2011. I was nine. Life was fun. Ballet, gymnastics, ice skating – an activity everyday of the week. My right leg began swelling gradually. In a month it was twice its normal size. Tennis was first to go: then hip-hop. Soon, doctor appointments ran my life. Consultations. Tests. Biopsies. Then more consultations, tests, and […]

  I believe that in order to build character, one must be challenged and overcome a difficulty.  This is the start of my journey, a journey that opened my eyes to qualities in others and qualities in myself that I had no idea existed.  I am a childhood cancer survivor.  The two years of treatment […]

  In the Fall of 2016, I was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare, aggressive bone cancer.  I had just turned 16, and I was far from ready for the burden that life handed to me.  I started having a bad attitude and feeling that part of my teen years were stolen from me and […]

  My goal for the future is to become a Pediatric Oncology nurse. I chose pediatric oncology nursing because for the past 4 years, in addition to being a full-time high school student, I have been a full-time cancer warrior. In the past three years, I have also performed over 950 hours of volunteer service […]

  It began when I was in North Wales Elementary School.  Thousands of juice bags were thrown away daily.  This inspired me to research and find a company willing to recycle if I collected them.  My gifted teacher helped get permission from the school.  Making collection bins with friends for the cafeteria and teacher lunch […]

  I was born with a fatal blood disease, Familial Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis, and as a result have spent many days and hours in the company of highly specialized and trained medical staff. I am most happy to say that I underwent a successful Stem Cell transplant (Bone Marrow Transplant) at the age of six months […]

  Ask anyone and I am sure they would say being diagnosed with cancer is the worst thing imaginable. No doubt, that’s true. I still shudder at the memory of hearing the words “Emma, you have leukemia” for the first time. Yet, over the past several years, I have come to learn firsthand that it’s […]

  I am an interesting case. At least that’s how someone once described me when I was six. That someone was an attending physician and he was speaking to a group of resident doctors, outside my room in the P.I.C.U. at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. I didn’t hear him call me that, because I was […]

  I’ll never forget the day I found out about my disease. I was in the first grade at the time, and I was sitting in class when my stomach started to hurt. I went down to the clinic and the nurse said my temperature was 104 degrees. My mom and dad came to pick […]

  Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. As I developed from a small foundation of life, I was always told that “knowledge is power” and being in a society that is constantly advancing, education is a thriving component that results changes. I […]