After a week of stomach pain and an inability to eat certain foods, Allison’s dad, William, encouraged her to come home from college to go to the emergency room. Once there, the initial bloodwork was abnormal, and doctors scheduled Allison for a CT scan. Results of the scan indicated that Allison had three pseudocysts on her pancreas and recommended she transfer to Nationwide Children's Hospital for more testing. Once at Nationwide Children’s, physicians identified the issue as a cancerous mass known as rhabdomyosarcoma rather than cysts. Rhabdomyosarcoma is typically diagnosed in children under 6, but at the time of Allison’s diagnosis, she was 18. 

Allison and her care team jumped into action with a plan that involved 67 weeks of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation. Just 12 weeks into chemotherapy, it was clear great progress was being made. Scans showed that Allison’s tumor had already shrunk to a third of its original size.

After all her rounds of chemotherapy she struggled with muscle atrophy and neuropathy in her fingers and toes as well as endocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), a condition in which the small intestine can't digest food completely. However, she has since found medication to help with these side effects. 

Allison recently turned 21 and is engaged to be married! 

“I once thought I wasn’t going to make it past 18,” Allison says. “I often look back on my cancer journey and reflect on all the learning and new perspectives I gained from journey. It has taught me to live my life with no regrets and to continue persevering through life.”