Help Haley Owens Beat Brain Cancer

Haley Owens is a 22-year-old recent East Tennessee State University graduate currently fighting grade 4 Glioblastoma. Haley grew up in middle Tennessee and was Valedictorian of her class at Cornersville High School in 2017, also where her mother, Diane Owens, has taught elementary school for 26 years. Haley first started experiencing slight headaches earlier this year, which she believed were due to the stressors of being a virtual college student. Upon graduating, the headaches persisted, which prompted her to visit her optometrist, where she was told a slight change in the prescription wouldn’t cause headaches she was experiencing. After that, she decided to start tracking the headaches. On May 27, Haley woke up with an extremely intense headache that lasted 4 - 5 hours. Another major headache came June 3 followed by nausea and a fever. She was given medication by her family doctor and sent home, but the next day came another excruciating headache with the same symptoms. She was advised to get tested for COVID, which later came back negative. 

That day, Haley was advised to visit the Williamson Medical Center Emergency Room where they found a 2.7 cm tumor around the pineal gland of her brain. She was transported to Vanderbilt Medical Center where she stayed until June 8. On the 14th, also her 22nd birthday, she underwent a 9 hour brain surgery.  

June 22 she received the devastating news that she in fact had brain cancer. Since then, Haley has done radiation treatments in conjunction with chemotherapy. She’s now on her second round of chemotherapy and is currently in a clinical trial in Buffalo, NY where she will be traveling for treatment every other week until the end of November. After that, she will receive treatment every three months for two years. She also wears an Optune device which sends electromagnetic waves to her tumor to disrupt the cancer cells from growing. This requires her head to be shaved every two days.

In May, Haley received a degree in microbiology and a minor in chemistry. Her dreams of working in a medical lab have been put on hold, but with her determination and our support, she’ll be well on her way to living out her dreams once she kicks cancers butt. Your contribution to her GoFundMe will help offset the burden of treatment and travel for her and her family. Thank you and God bless!