Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to be in the medical field. I used to call myself Doctor Brittany Spears and prance around in my tiny lab coat, with my plastic stethoscope around my neck, asking my family who my next patient was.
Fast forward to fourteen-year-old Emma- vulnerable, preoccupied and self-centered, like any other freshman girl. I was completely unaware of what the universe really had in store for my family and me and I could never have imagined what was about to become my reality.
My entire life changed the day I was given the news of my mother’s cancer. I shifted from your average high school teenager to a caretaker, advocate and in time, a responsible young woman. Weekly trips to Dana Farber, chemo, and surgery after surgery replaced after school soccer games, hanging out with friends and life as I knew it. As these things became more normal to me I began to realize that I wanted to be a part of this well-oiled, cancer curing machine when I grew up. Not only did my mom’s cancer shape me into the woman I am today, but it helped me realize that “Doctor Brittany Spears” would one day become “Nurse Emma”.
As I sit here, now a graduate nurse, I realize that I am going to be one of the internal parts of the machine that is headed in the direction of the cure to cancer. I am one of the insiders on this seemingly never-ending journey. Something that has always been at the forefront of my mind is now at my fingertips, not only as a nurse but with the PMC. Along with her fighting spirit, I attribute 100% of my mom’s health to Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Without the knowledge, dependability and unwavering support of the nurses and doctors at this hospital, I’m not sure that I’d still have my best friend by my side. And thanks to the funds raised by PMC, many others have gotten that second chance at life just like my mom.
It’s time to pay it forward and continue to fight for a cure. Any and all donations would mean the absolute world to me. Thank you!!
