My name is Kaitlyn Gatewood. I am the oldest of three children and I have one brother and one sister. Since I was younger I have dreamt of traveling abroad and learning about different cultures and languages. I am a former student of the University of Hawaii where I studied the Korean language.

Within months of returning home from my first year in college, I started feeling sick. I was tired all the time and slept a lot. I began having stomach problems and unexplained pain. But what really concerned me was when I started falling. I would suddenly feel unsteady on my feet and fall to the ground. I was worried, but each time I would try to find out what was wrong with me I would get sent home from doctor’s offices, urgent care clinics, and emergency rooms with short-term treatments for whatever ailment I came in with that day.

On April 30th, 2017 I was experiencing severe stomach pain and began having difficulty breathing. I was unable to lie down flat on my back to sleep. After insistence from my parents, I begrudgingly went back to the emergency room where they ran test after test. In the early hours of the next day, I was told I had Stage 4 Cancer and must be admitted to the hospital right away. At that point, I had tumors occluded throughout my chest, blood clots in my lungs, a mass near my heart, and a mass in my right ovary. Over the next week, I was put on oxygen and high doses of pain medications. I was hooked up to tubes and wires and was in and out of consciousness. I changed Oncologists three times the first week before they officially diagnosed me with Pre B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma (ALL) under the care of Pediatric Oncology.

Six weeks after being hospitalized I turned 21 years old and the realization of the road ahead of me became painfully clear. I don’t remember much about the first few weeks after my diagnosis. My family told me about hallucinations I would have from being sedated. I thought I was swimming underwater and surrounded by beautiful mermaids. I later discovered these mermaids were my nurses in the Pediatric ICU (with Nurse Shawna being the most beautiful of all).

I am now in my 10th month of treatment. I have taken countless pills, chemotherapy infusions, lumbar punctures, an NG tube, and multiple hospitalizations to treat this very aggressive form of cancer. At times I have been too weak to eat, needed help bathing and going to the bathroom, and had feelings of hopelessness. Through my illness and treatment, I have become closer to my family and met amazing people in the hospital’s doctors, nursing staff, and support staff. Although I still have a long 2 years ahead of me, I am excited to begin the Maintenance Phase of treatment in the next 1-2 months. I am proud to be the LLS Young Woman of the Year for this worthy campaign to share my story and bring awareness to Leukemia & Lymphoma and the debilitating effects it has on individuals and families. Each cancer patient has a story and we aren’t all the same, some of us are born fighters and some of us need more motivation. I can finally start to see the light at the end of this tunnel. I am a survivor.