SURVIVORS SHARE THEIR DREAMS

As a child, teenager and young adult most people dream of things like being a star athlete, falling in love, becoming famous, graduating from college and starting a family. For many brain tumor survivors these dreams  can change quickly as a result of physical or cognitive changes after having a brain tumor. Mark Young was  a college student and baseball player at Norfolk State University. While in college and on his way to becoming a professional baseball player he was diagnosed with medullablastoma. After his surgery and treatment, Mark faced physical challenges such as difficulty with balance. The following is a great article published on line at Know Cancer about how for Mark “cancer was not a dream killer, just a dream changer.”

Mark has given back to the community in a variety of ways including serving as a Survivor Mentor at the Teen Heads Up Conference last summer. Thank you Mark for all you do for the brain tumor community.

Another young brain tumor survivor and poet, Devika Singh, wrote the following poem about dreams.

                                                Dreams

                Dreams are something you imagine

                Something you think about

                Dreams are

                What you think

                What you want

                Dreams are

                How you think

                How you picture the world.

 

Thank you Devika and all the survivors and their families for helping each other reach dreams and talking about the challenges along the way.