Teen becomes first in family to graduate college after beating cancer at St. Jude

DENVER (KDVR) — In the halls of St. Jude hospitals, there is artwork from patients created in the midst of treatment when the kids get to do something just to be kids.

“The great equalizer is people love to create,” St. Jude patient Madison told FOX31. “It’s also nice because creating something that’s not special to just someone with cancer, it’s a normal, everyday person thing.”

Madison lived a normal life up until her sophomore year of college.

“I actually was in school for art and I am a graphic designer,” Madison said. “I woke up one morning and I had a weird lump, like it felt like there was a golf ball under my skin where my neck meets my shoulder.”

Madison got a blood test thinking it was a seasonal cold symptom. That turned into a CT scan and results she never anticipated.

“I called my mom and dad and they were halfway across the state,” Madison said. “And I was like, ‘Hey guys, I don’t know how to say it. So I’m just going to come out and say it. They think it’s cancer.'”

Madison was 19 when she received a diagnosis of stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma. Doctors recommended St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where her aunt, now a 40-year cancer survivor, was a patient in the 1980s.

Madison went through four rounds of chemotherapy and then months of physical and occupational therapy to regain her fine motor skills.

“I am now graduated from college, I am a graphic designer full time, and two years ago I bought a home, so I am full adulting,” Madison said.

Adulthood is something Madison and her family thank those donating for making possible.

“My parents are very normal middle-class people, so it wasn’t like, ‘What do we afford, Maddy’s chemo this week or do we buy groceries?’ They didn’t have to make that choice, It was never a decision,” she said.

St. Jude patients and families never receive a bill for treatment, food or anything while they are on campus.

“Whether, you know, it’s the 50 cents or $100, $1 million — like whatever someone is able to give is truly making a difference in the way that St. Jude treats cancer and hopefully one day, cures it,” Madison said.

The St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway raffle is officially underway. With each $100 ticket, FOX31 viewers are helping raise $2.5 million toward the St. Jude mission this year to help others like Madison.

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