Fighting for a Cure
Published: February 27, 2015
By: Paige Townley
Like most college students, Kayla Perry spends much of her time hanging out with friends, studying, and cheering on her school’s football team. But in addition to going to class and cramming for exams, Kayla has another serious focus: fighting neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer that typically shows up in babies and young children. Kayla was diagnosed when she was 18.
In January 2013, Kayla had moved to Hawaii to study with a Christian organization called Youth With A Mission. The plan was to spend three months in Hawaii preparing to travel to Kenya and Uganda to help and minister to those in need. While in Hawaii, Kayla began experiencing random, unexplained nose bleeds. Not thinking much of it, in March she left as planned for Kenya. While there, the nose bleeds became all too frequent.
“I began visiting doctors in Nairobi hoping for a solution that would let me to continue on to Uganda as planned,” Kayla explains. “But after a week of going back and forth to the hospital every day, doctors were unable to diagnosis my problem and said I needed to get back to the U.S.”
When she got home, the tests quickly began. In May, after a week of tests, scans and a lot of waiting, Kayla was diagnosed with cancer. Another week went by before doctors were able to determine the specific type: stage IV neuroblastoma.
“There are certain things you forget about that happen in life, things you just don’t remember, but I remember everything about that whole day,” says Kayla’s mother, Christen. “It was a very defining day. We were all together as a family, and after we left the hospital we went home and just sat in the living room together. My husband, Rob, said, ‘Today we cry, but tomorrow we fight. And we fight together.’ And that’s what we’ve done.”
While obviously not fully prepared to receive a cancer diagnosis, Kayla’s determination to fight the disease never wavered. “The doctor told me it wasn’t a death sentence,” she says. “There is always the possibility that we find a cure, and that’s my goal. So in my mind, there was no other option that to do whatever I could to beat it.”
And in doing everything she could to beat it, which has included the standard weeks of inpatient chemotherapy, radiation, a bone marrow transplant, immunotherapy and now almost monthly trips to Atlanta for her new chemotherapy treatments, Kayla hasn’t lost focus of the goals she has in life. One of those goals, attending and graduating from Auburn University, is on its way to fruition. She just finished her first semester, and despite having to miss many days of classes, she completed the semester as a straight-A student.
But in focusing on her goals, she’s also focused on using her situation to help others. “I want to be present in my life and complete the things I want to complete and experience the things I want to experience, but I also realize it’s not all about me,” Kayla says. “It’s about something much bigger than that. And I get to be a part of it.”
In order to help others, Kayla decided to become a nurse practitioner in pediatric oncology. “I never really considered becoming a nurse before I was diagnosed,” she says. “In fact, I never would have thought I would want to do it. But after being on the other side, being the patient, I realized how important the relationship between nurse and patient can be. I had been on the receiving side of that relationship, and I want to be on the giving side one day.”
Kayla and her family also established Open Hands Overflowing Hearts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising money to fund pediatric cancer research. Through various events as part of the group’s “100 Ways 100 Days” campaign, the foundation has raised approximately $325,000 so far.
“It has been really amazing to see people come together for one purpose and see that people are willing to take hold of my passions like raising money for childhood cancer research,” Kayla says. “The fact that people will sacrifice for the good of others and for the good of a particular cause is a wonderful thing. I’m blessed and thankful for all of the support.”
For more information about Kayla or to make a donation to pediatric cancer research, visit http://www.openhandsoverflowinghearts.org.
Paige Townley is a local freelance writer.