This Isn't a normal article for me to write. Sharing somebody else's story I feel isn't my place. However, when the power of numbers outweighs the power of staying quiet there is certain peace.
For the first time, I had somebody question my "Fight Like Hill" sticker on the back of my car. "What's that all about?" I was asked. I was taken aback as I've never been asked once about the sticker that's held it's place on the left side of my back windshield for almost two years. I thought, for the first time, what "Fight Like Hill" was all about.
Madison Hill. A name known well in my hometown and towns surrounding it. A name everyone from my home town knows and respects. Maddie is a normal girl. Loves soccer, her dog Luka, and Penn State. But Maddie is extraordinary in a way like no other. She's battled cancer three times in her life. I remember the day she was diagnosed for the first time. We were in third grade, it was our field trip day, and Maddie wasn't able to come with us. Some of the students noticed she was always tired, sitting in line when we'd line up at the door. However, our little eight-year-old selves weren't about to recognize the fight she was about endure. That year Maddie was diagnosed with a type of Lymphoma. When you're in third grade and you're told one of your classmates has cancer, you kind of just assume they're sick, like with the flu or something. I remember the year in flashbacks. She came back for our Christmas party and we wore our bright yellow shirts the day we learned that Maddie's tumor was gone, and she was cancer free.
It wasn't until about 10 years later that she met her 10 year cancer free mark that I fully understood the battle she endured at eight years old. She fought something that way too many eight-year-olds have to fight and she won.
No longer did she celebrate being 10 years cancer free that she found herself back in the hospital. She was diagnosed with cancer for the second time. Knowing she had just met her 10 year cancer free mark (which is the "You're pretty clear" point where you're less likely to relapse), when the cancer did come back, made it all harder to process. A bone marrow transplant later and a few more treatments, she was cancer free again; until October of our senior year of high school. Since then she's been fighting, going through treatment after treatment and sometimes getting more questions than answers. Last February she was expected not to make it. Our school held a prayer vigil and miraculously Maddie did make it and spoke at our graduation, which ended with a much deserved standing ovation. Unfortunately, right now Maddie isn't doing the greatest. The Hill family is currently facing many frustrations with diagnoses and other complications that come along with cancer.
I am not very close with Maddie or her family. But I know the power of numbers are great. Fight Like Hill means home. It means coming together for somebody you may not know very well to rally and walk through this battle with them. Fight Like Hill means hope. It means that anyone battling cancer, or anything at all has hope. There is hope over the next big hill that we face.
So why did I tell you just a brief part of her story just to tell you there's hope in the world?
Because there were so many times where Maddie and her family could've easily given up on hope, but through all the trials they're still fighting. This is the message I got from her fight, as her second diagnosis happened close to my discharge from treatment of a battle of my own. The Hill family has taught me the power of family and the power of home.
We all hold a strength inside of us that pushes us through even the biggest of hills that life throws at us.
However this is where you come in. We can't always fight a battle alone. Right now Maddie and the Hill's could use our prayers the most. Even if you do not pray, please take some time to send a positive thought or prayer to Maddie and her family. There are times in life where we feel like nothing can get better, we get tired of fighting and we know we can't do this alone. And I know the power of friends and family lifting you up is incredible and go miles in a battle such as cancer or my own. please take a moment, and life up Maddie to help her make it through something other kids fight so hard everyday to beat.
In honor of Maddie being a THON child, if you share this please use the hashtags #FightLikeHill and #FTK never forget the power and strength you hold within you. It can do wonders and work miracles.
Fight Like Hill
