On Saturdays, Gwen cheers for football on the University of Delaware’s coed cheer team. During the week, she’s in her fourth year of nursing school, splitting time between classes, clinical rotations, and practice. “I love that I get to balance clinical experiences for school while also cheering and representing the university,” she says.
Years ago, she was the patient.
Gwen had routine blood work done in 2018. The next day, she was in the emergency department. She was thirteen. “I was convinced I would still be going to cheer practice the following day and starting 8th grade the next week,” Gwen says. “I had no idea what to expect.”
“Being diagnosed with a life-threatening blood disorder and going through a bone marrow transplant is anything but normal,” she says, “but our family created a new normal to help all of us get through it.”
She remembers her first outpatient clinic appointment most clearly. She had never sat across from a doctor who wasn’t her pediatrician. “I felt uncomfortable and scared of everything in the clinic,” Gwen says, “from my patient ID bracelet to the beeping IV poles.”
Thanks to the Arts in Medicine Studio, making art helped her get through the long appointments. The Integrative Therapies team introduced her to aromatherapy. She still keeps in touch with the doctors and medical staff who treated her.
“Despite my fear, everyone approached my family and me with warmth and kindness,” she says. They answered every question they had and let her pick which color band-aid she wanted. “Those small moments were meaningful to me,” she adds. “I felt supported and cared for as a 13-year-old girl, not just a patient.”
Yet, the word “survivor” doesn’t quite fit for Gwen. “I don’t necessarily view my transplant as something I survived,” Gwen says, “rather something I went through.”
These days, it’s nursing school and cheering. “What matters to me the most is enjoying the little things,” she says. “I love spending time with my roommates and friends, trying different coffee shops around campus.”
Here’s what Gwen wants anyone still in treatment to hear. “Continue to find the good in every day,” Gwen says. “Some days it may feel far away, but there is so much life beyond treatment.”
For 30 years, Hope & Heroes has been suporting kids and families like Gwen’s. Your gift today means the next family walking into that clinic receives the same care Gwen did. Donate today.
