Living Strong: Sarah Strong ’11

“I kind of just thought that it was just a cold, or whatever. Just a normal college thing,” Sarah said. “But just because of my instincts, I just wanted to go home and check it out … So they ended up doing an x-ray and found a mass underneath my breast bone in my chest, and from there they just were like, ‘This is pretty serious.’”
 
So Sarah and her doctors set to work, ready to take on and defeat the stage II non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma that set up shop in her chest. They decided that chemotherapy was the appropriate treatment. Sarah received five rounds of RCHOP Chemotherapy, and would sit in the hospital for six to eight hours while the treatment did its job.
 
And the treatment did do its job. After completing her chemo, Sarah was cancer-free, and back to living a healthy, college life. She returned to Purdue for her sophomore year and everything was going great. But things took a turn after she completed the school year.
 
“My whole left arm was swollen and I didn’t know why,” she said. “I was like, ‘Well maybe I got stung by something or was allergic to something.’ So I went home and they did another x-ray and found that the mass had been enclosing around my trachea in my chest and in my lungs so it was cutting off circulation, so it was like a blood clot in my left arm.”
 
The same stage II non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma that she had beaten the year before was back for a second round, with much more intensity than her previous bout.
 
“Finding out again for the second time, I was really devastated and I didn’t know why it was happening again. It wasn’t stage III or anything, but just where it was and how rapidly it came back was why it was more intense the second time.”
 
Through all of the unknowns of what the future held and all of the questions without answers, Sarah stayed strong and didn’t even bat an eye to one of the most frightening realities many people face.
 
“From the very beginning I had an amazing support system. My family and my friends were always there for me. But the main thing that I really knew, like in my head, I was like, ‘I was 19 and there was no way that cancer is going to be what takes my life. There’s so much more to my life that I have to live.’ I never really wanted people to feel sorry for me for being sick because in my heart, I knew I was going to make it. How I knew that, I don’t know. I didn’t know everything that was going to happen, but you know you’ve got to take it one day at a time.”
 
And that’s exactly what she did. After more intensive treatments that included more chemo, radiation, and a stem cell transplant, Sarah in now CANCER FREE! And has been since last September.
 
“Through everything, I’m amazed at how much good has come out of such a horrible situation. And I know that a lot of people think that cancer is this awful, awful thing—which it is—but I’ve learned so much that I don’t think some people learn till they’re a lot older. I think in a way it has given me the ability to not get wrapped up in the smaller things in life. You just have to look at life completely different and be so grateful for your friends and your family.”

 Sarah has been active in cancer-fighting organizations such as Colleges Against Cancer, is deeply involved in Relay For Life, and had the chance to speak at Purdue’s Relay last year.
 
“Some of the coolest times are when I’m walking on campus and someone has come up to me and said, ‘Oh, are you the girl who spoke at Relay For Life last year?’ And it’s just amazing to me that I get to have that effect on certain people from sharing my story.”
 
For any collegiette™ who is going through a similar situation, Sarah has this advice to offer:
 
“You just have to be positive through everything and know that it will be OK; know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere and it might not feel like it at certain points, but people are there for you. You have to know that it’s something that you’re going to get over. It’s a little bump in the road right now but if you’re in college going through it, I think that you’d have to look at it like you’re definitely going to make it through and know that and say it, day in and day out.”
 
Now a senior majoring in Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sarah will graduate in December 2011, stronger than ever.
 
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strong
Photos provided by Sarah Strong