How One Young Woman Got Involved
Learning to Live (Again)
by Nikki Schultz
In the final days of my spring break from Penn State University, I was struggling with a much graver problem than most students reluctant to return to school: my mother’s body was shutting down. At twenty years old and as an only child, my world was crumbling at my feet. My mom’s battle with Stage IIIC Ovarian Cancer had begun in May of 2010 and subsequently catapulted my entire family into a grueling nine months of selecting and undergoing treatments, experiencing and recovering from surgeries, and countless impromptu hospital stays. On March 11, 2011, I lost my mom, my best friend, my earthly angel to ovarian cancer. Just days after her passing I was reading O, The Oprah Magazine, and I stumbled upon the article “Can She Change the Way We Treat Cancer?” which focused on Laura Shawver’s creation of The Clearity Foundation. I immediately started to cry, wondering why I hadn’t heard of this wonderful foundation ten months previously. Suddenly, however, I was hit with a profoundly quiet, peaceful answer: “This is happening now for a reason.” Intrigued, I sent an email to the team at Clearity explaining my story and expressing a deep desire to help in some way. Here I am, two months later, as Clearity’s new intern. I feel immensely blessed to have this opportunity. For every patient that Clearity has been able to reach, BRAVO! For every one that has not yet been reached, my story is a reminder that there are still more patients waiting for answers. My mother, Karen, was an incredibly generous woman who truly lit up any room she entered with her warmth and kindness. Her positive attitude and passion for life provided a living example of everything I hope to become. I wrote a 14-page article in December detailing my mom’s illness and how it had taught me to truly live – grateful for and enjoying every single minute. Now that she’s in heaven, I feel like I’m learning to live all over again. Though I feel I am at an advantage; I may have had only twenty years with my mom, but the wisdom and love she has given me makes me feel luckier than some who have their mothers for sixty years. My mom and I always talked about how much we could help others when, not if, she beat her cancer; we were so certain it would happen. Our prayers may not have been answered in the exact way we hoped they would, but my discovery of Clearity proves unequivocally to me that my mother’s legacy and our story can help others somehow. Through sharing my story, I hope to find other families like mine who could use a friend like Clearity. Awareness is one of the biggest challenges we face right now. Clearity’s Aware, Share, Care campaign is dedicated to spreading awareness in order to reach every patient and family that can benefit from molecular profiling. Please support Aware, Share, Care by visiting this link and learning more: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs088/1102712935813/archive/1104622851393.html.
