Hi, I'm Allie Newman, and at 16, my life took a crazy turn when I was diagnosed with cancer.
I was a typical, normal teenager.
Active, athletic, smart.
She had everything going for her, everything in front of her.
And then at 16, the world turns upside down.
I woke up in the middle of the night with pain.
We took her in for an MRI, and they basically said, there's something more to this.
I was sitting in bed on a Thursday night doing my AP calculus homework, just like any other normal teenager,
and we got the call that it was cancer.
It was a full 12 months, very intense, harsh chemo.
I had a partial hip replacement, a total femur replacement, and a total knee replacement.
From the very beginning, her ability to adapt and take the roles of this roller coaster ride,
I really think helped all of our recoveries, not just hers.
There was no turning back. There was no way she was not going to make it, period.
It was emotional, but you don't have time to dwell on it.
I mean, you truly are fighting for survival, that it's not something that I could waste my energy thinking about.
To be facing mortality long before you should face mortality, you have to be resilient.
And that resilience, that ability to push, is something very, very special.
The strength that she pushes out to others, they feel that.
What I hope people take away from my story is that there is life after hardship.
People say, you're so strong, I could have never done that. You can. You can do it.
It's okay to have mountains in front of you. That's part of life.
It's not what happens when you see the mountain or the challenge, it's how you react to it.
She is my hero.
No matter what it is where you don't feel like you're going to get through it, resilience means that you are.