Cancer Sucks

My name is Nicole, I'm nineteen and am a student at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. Around the end of my sophomore year of high school, my mom was diagnosed with lung and colon cancer. After intensive rounds of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, she lost her battle with cancer just seven months after it began. Despite trying to spend as much time with her as possible, I maintained a high GPA while also continuing to play a sport. It was hard to move on from the loss at only sixteen, but I pushed myself to get where I am.

With the loss of my mom, my family not only lost our best friend and biggest supporter we also encountered a significant loss of income and adjustments had to be made so that my dad could continue to financially support my brother and I.

With my second year approaching, I recently learned I will not be receiving any financial aid, despite my dad and stepmom having multiple children in school and having both lost jobs in 2013 due to downsizing. After spending the summer working two jobs to make what I can and with some help from student loans, I'm still short on my tuition costs for my sophomore year. 

When I hopefully return in the fall I will be a Biology and Anatomy Secondary Education major and receive a minor in Religion. I hope to one day be able to teach children about science and have them fall in love with it the way I have. I can be very hard-headed and stubborn so asking for help is very hard and unusual of me to do. But the thought of asking for help is infinitely better than thought of not returning to college which is what my mom had always wanted for my brother and I. I would be beyond grateful to see my dream happen through the help of your contributions.