Help a Young Survivor and Their Family in Need

Hi! I’m currently 16, but I’d like to share with you my story. When I was 13, I was traveling to Ohio from Florida to visit family. A couple of days later, I found a huge mass coming out of my cervix. I was terrified. I was only 13 and didn’t know much about tumors or cancers, so I had no clue this could cause so much harm. I thought it was just a big blood clot from my menstrual cycle that would hopefully pass soon. I called my mom into the bathroom asking her for help. She ran me a nice warm bath, and I got in. By the time she came back with a towel for when I got out, the bath was already filled with blood. That night, she took me to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The doctors were quite confused about this huge tumor I had. They admitted me into the hospital after sitting for 6 hours in the emergency room. Dr. Turpin then came into the room and said I would need surgery to remove the mass and test it to see what it could be. I was confused and scared. The next morning at 6:30 AM, a nurse came in to do my vitals to make sure I was ready to go in for surgery. My surgery took 4 hours in total. They couldn’t remove the entire mass all in one surgery, so I was due for another sometime soon. The doctors tested my tumor and found out that the mass I had was a cancerous tumor. The cancer is called Rhabdomyosarcoma. After waking up from my surgery, I was placed back into my hospital room, and they waited until the anesthesia wore off to tell me the news. Dr. Turpin and a few other oncologists walked into the room and broke the news to me. I had cervical cancer at the age of 13. I remember the exact words he said to me before he left the room. He told me, “Your cancer is so rare it’s like hitting the lottery but backwards. I’ve only had one other case like this.” My cancer was so rare that under 1% of people had it. Gladly, it was only stage 1, but if I had waited any longer to go to the hospital, it would have spread quickly. This was June 2nd, 2022. I went through 30 harsh rounds of chemo once a week for 7 months. I beat cancer on December 27th, 2022. It’s now March 11th, 2025. I’m still in and out of the hospital pretty frequently. Due to me being in the hospital, my mom cannot keep a steady job to support me during these difficult times. We need help and support. Even after a few years gone by, it’s still hard. Anything helps Thank you