Why I FIGHT – by Sarah Leming

During my third round of chemotherapy, there was literally a fire at the hospital.  We had to evacuate.  There I was, pushing my chemotherapy IV bag out the front door into the heavy heat of that North Carolina summer day.  It was hot.  It was miserable.  And I had cancer.  But looking around, all I could see was all the sick people that surrounded me.  I felt sorry for them because they were old, and they were frail.  But I wasn’t.  I was strong, and I was a Marine.  I just had this little thing I had to take care of before I could get my life back on track- that perfect life with the loving husband and two little boys- I just had to get better to get back to it.  So imagine my surprise when the chairs were brought out for all the cancer patients and I was offered one.

I’m stubborn, and maybe I think I’m stronger than I am- either way, I was not going to let cancer change the way I saw myself.  And so at least on that day, the chair was an insult.  It was a reminder of my weakness that I had lied to my body about.  Because if I took the chair, I’d be saying I was sick.  If I turned it down, yes it would probably be stupid, but it would tell the world that cancer WAS NOT going to get the best of me.  I don’t know who sat in the chair that was to be mine- I hope it offered them the rest I was too bull-headed to take.  But on that day, I decided to stand.

And three years later I continue to take a stand against cancer by raising money and awareness for the 70,000 young adults, just like me, that are diagnosed with cancer every year.  And I have but two motivations: to make their cancer experience better than mine was, just as those that went before me paved the way for better treatments that I received; and to ensure that, if they need it, they can have my chair.