Normally when a child grows up, they are healthy, look at the world with pure eyes, and embrace the little things. But that was never my reality. At first, I didn’t feel anything. We knew something was wrong when I was unable to eat food or breathe normally. After several doctor’s appointments, it hit my mom when she saw oncology written on the hospital wall that our lives would never be the same.
My journey with pediatric cancer began in 2009. I was eight years old I couldn’t grasp what was going on and neither could my parents. I was diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer and became the first of this diagnosis in the tri-state area. Over the years my team performed seven surgeries and procedures for several complications that has tested my limits physically and mentally. It took years to believe that fighting this disease was a chapter of my life, not the full story.
Throughout my journey, I was always asked, “how are you able to handle this all at such a young age?” My answer to this question has always stayed the same: the reality that we don’t get a choice but to fight. Since beginning this fight, I have been programmed to keep moving forward and choose positivity and happiness above all else.
I am the girl in gold, the girl who continues to fight, the girl who while everyone told her she’d die survived. I beat the odds for me, for my friends, for my family. And now after all these years, I use my story to inspire others
Giovanna DeLima
Survivor
