Hi, my name is Valencia and I’m a 19-year-old college sophomore attending PVAMU.

My cancer story started at the beginning of my senior year in 2019 when I had my first surgery to remove my ovary along with an overgrown germ cell tumor they found on my left ovary. After that surgery, I had to have another surgery in May of 2020 to remove another tumor the doctors found in my abdomen. Again in January of 2021, I was rushed to the hospital when I had a high fever, back pain, and trouble breathing. The CT results had shown the tumor spread to my lungs and was crushing my lungs and my heart. I had another surgery at the end of January and started chemotherapy in March. After much contemplation, I had to drop my classes because the chemotherapy was a lot on my body. After chemotherapy, until May I was able to return to my “normal” life and work to save money for my school stuff in the fall. Now we are here in October of 2021 and I’m going to be starting chemotherapy again but orally so I can try to finish more school. My school is 1hr+ away from the hospital and I don’t have any transportation other than Uber. Sadly Uber consumes all of my money. I also need help with other expenses such as my tuition and food etc for me to continue my college career and do chemo at the same time. There’s so much I’m trying to do, I want to start a business and finish school. Anything helps as I am an independent individual supporting myself 100% on my own ❤️