Combating fears: Strife to excel

She loved to laugh and made everyone around her smile. This short write-up is about Anastasiya, a friend of mine who is from a small town in Bulgaria. A charming, enthusiastic personality who loved to travel and meet new people. A bright, intelligent girl who was not quite sure of what she wanted to do professionally until she was admitted to the hospital in the summer of 2005. She was admitted on the basis of having breathing difficulties but was detected of having lung cancer. Surgery followed by chemotherapy was administered immediately to cure her of the disease. Initially she and everyone around her were quite surprised with the diagnosis. How can a perfectly normal 23-year-old individual be diagnosed with cancer? She was curious to understand how a perfectly normal body starts to malfunction.

After this incident, she was inspired to contribute her efforts towards finding a cure for cancer. In order to understand what went wrong, she first wanted to determine the basic framework in which in the human body works. She had no idea how the mechanisms of biology worked as she had an undergraduate degree in history. Nevertheless she took the challenge to understand biology even after knowing that it was a uphill task for her considering that it was a new subject altogether and that she was not completely fit (as she was still undergoing chemotherapy) to take up the job. But her determination surpassed all her fears and she entered Graduate School to learn biology in 2006. While at graduate school she was fascinated about learning the intricacies of the various mechanisms that put the human body in the right balance such that it functions optimally. She had very high levels of motivation, as evident from the fact that even when she had to go through a round of chemotherapy the very next day she was back to her books and doing experiments. In school, she excelled in everything she did, right from her coursework to performing actual experiments in the lab. At times she got that strange look “ you have cancer” from a few people but she didn't let that affect her performance at something that she loved to do.

Fortunately, she has been cured of the disease and is living well now. In her spare time she works with children who have cancer. Her story and enthusiasm about life has helped a lot of people overcome their fears of cancer and has allowed them to see life from a different perspective.

Anastasiya’s enthusiasm and motivation allowed her to do well inspite of her disabilities. As she quotes “though it would take a considerable amount of time to understand the underpinnings of cancer biology and come up with a treatment my life's mission is to contribute towards finding a cure for cancer” and try to save millions of other people from the pain and suffering associated with this disease.

Though this is an exceptional story, it is nevertheless true and an inspiration not only to me but hopefully through this website to millions of others. I learnt a lot from this young lady who despite her disabilities chased her dreams and is working successfully to achieving it and making it come true.

Contributed by Ms Tania, 16th Dec 2007