Cheerleader Beats Cancer

Almost anyone can agree that they have known someone who battled some kind of cancer at some point in their life. Cancer has become ubiquitous in our society. It’s depicted in our television shows, slathered all over warnings, and talked about commonly, but it still shocks people when cancer strikes a healthy, talented, young high school student.

This horrible disease became a reality for one Hastings High School junior, Cheyanne Axtell. She was diagnosed with a Wilms tumor which usually occurs in children of a younger age, but according to doctors it had been growing for quite a while before it was discovered.

Radiation and chemotherapy have a high success rate with Wilms tumors and Axtell started her treatments in the middle of July. This involved a lot of traveling back and forth from Hastings to the Children’s Hospital in Omaha. Axtell’s treatment had many variations that shifted as time went on.

“Every Thursday I went to get chemo, but after six weeks I had to do eight days of radiation while still going through chemo. I also had five-day stints where I would stay in the hospital for five days and get chemo every day. After awhile they shortened my chemo periods to every three weeks, but that meant getting all three chemo drugs at the same time, unlike before when it was on a rotation when I went every Thursday,” Axtell said.

The treatment plan also included scans every three weeks to check on her progress.

As one could assume, this process was physically grueling as well as mentally taxing. Axtell developed what the doctors refer to as a “conditional response.” This means that the treatment was so horrible that she began to feel sick upon entering the hospital.

“I hated treatment. I knew going to get chemo meant I wouldn’t feel good after. It meant puking, missing school, and laying in bed for a couple days,” Axtell said.

Between the cost of the scans, treatments, hospital stays, travel, and medicine, costs started to add up. However, the goodness of friends, school staff, teammates, and strangers prevailed during this tough time.

“People helped out with what they could. Some of these people I didn’t even know, especially the cheer team. In the beginning of the year, a small group of people helped raise $250 dollars for travel after that the cheer team helped raise another $300. This money helped pay for food and travel expenses,” Axtell said.

Axtell is a member of the cheerleading team and credits them with being some of her biggest supporters.

“The cheer team was with me every step of the way. They visited me after my tumor was removed. They included me and always made sure I was doing okay,” Axtell said.

Even with the support of all these people, Axtell still struggled with not being able to do the things she used to do. Before cancer struck, Axtell was a gymnast, and as previously mentioned, on the cheer team.

“I was no longer the girl that stood on the top of the pyramid or did backflips across the gym. I was the cancer girl. I was the one that got tired just by standing up in the morning or it felt like I just got done running a mile from walking up the stairs,” Axtell said.

These physical limitations also affected her at school.

“There were a couple times that I went to the office for a pass because I didn’t have the energy to run to class,” Axtell said.

She sums up the horror of these realizations.

“So I lost a lot of my physical ability. That’s hard for me because it’s like that bad dream where you can’t do what you’re amazing at anymore. When others wake up from that dream it’s alright but when I wake up from that dream it’s my reality. That was really hard for me,” Axtell said.

During Axtell’s many hospitals stays she met up with her social worker who advised her on applying for the Make-A-Wish foundation. The foundation provides once in a lifetime opportunities to kids with life-threatening diseases. Axtell’s wish was to go to Hawaii, which she recently found out will be granted.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii. I want to see the beach. I want to eat fresh pineapple and crab, not the stuff that we get in the middle of Nebraska shipped through several food trucks. I want to watch the sun dip below a blue horizon. I want to experience a luau. So I wished to travel to Hawaii,” Axtell said.

Even though cancer is a mountain that most high school kids couldn’t even imagine conquering, Axtell has finished her treatment and has beaten cancer. In a couple months she will return for more scans to see if the cancer is still gone.

“Mentally-wise I can’t believe that I’m done. I’m ecstatic. I cried when I found out the news. You know we meet people who have cancer we know loved ones who have died from it but we don’t picture ourselves with such a scary illness. I certainly didn’t picture myself. But here I am. Everything is said and done and I can’t believe it,” Axtell said.

Axtell has a lot of wisdom and humor to share with anyone going through a similar experience.

“Use the cancer card as much as possible. Surround yourself with friends and family and be positive. You could easily be angry all the time, and sad and slip into a depressed state, but that only makes the disease win. You can’t stop fighting. Your illness and scars don’t define you but they do help tell your story no matter the ending. Hair grows back. But don’t think like ‘oh.. I’m hairless’ think ‘ha! I don’t have to shave.’ Oh and don’t eat spicy food or food you love right after chemo… you’ll regret it,” Axtell said.