Cancer crashed into Sara Paige Widener’s life in April 2005. Then a freshman at the University of Puget Sound, she initially chalked up the crushing headaches to pre-finals tension and college eating habits. Doctors ultimately found a 7 centimeter mass in her brain, a secondary tumor to one in her lower spine. The news wasn’t good: stage 4 anaplastic ependymoma. Statistics said she had a few months to live. Three surgeries, 18 weeks of radiation and nearly two years of chemotherapy later, Widener is now a senior, with her 21st birthday and graduation on the horizon.
USA Weekend has selected Widener as one of 10 Make a Difference Day winners. Along with her mother, Barbara Widener, the Thornton native raised $15,000, 70 hats and scarves and 27 braids of hair to benefit impoverished cancer patients, local hospitals and Locks of Love. Their story will appear April 15 in USA Weekend magazine.
After a full day of classes, Widener answered a few questions from her cellphone as she drove to Seattle for treatment. – Roxanne Hawn, Special to The Denver Post
Where do you get the energy for your volunteer work? I am tired, but I feel that most of my strength comes not only from within myself but from the support that I get from my friends and family. I guess it’s just my desire to continue living as best as possible. I could give up. I could watch movies all day and pity myself and say, “Oh, poor me. I have cancer.” I acknowledge that it’s a part of my life, but just as anybody who has asthma or dyslexia or any learning disability, it’s just a part of your life that you learn to deal with.
Since your diagnosis, what did you drop from and what did you add to your life? Initially, I had to become very reliant on other people. I was in need of more support than I was able to give. Unfortunately, or I guess fortunately, I had to drop a lot of the friendships and relationships that I had because I couldn’t put in the effort that normally a college student would need to put into a relationship. I needed a lot of support from other people, and I think for a lot of people my age it’s difficult for them to acknowledge or to admit that somebody my age or younger could be facing death.
I think I added a lot of qualities to my personality. I’ve become very outgoing. I used to hate public speaking. I love speaking now. I take up any public speaking event that I can get. I do a lot of advocacy work now.
I guess I’m just focused more on quality of life, and being involved in the lives of others more now than I was before. Before I was interested in going into a medical research career, becoming a doctor, and now I’m actually looking more into the psychological aspects of how people deal with illnesses or how people can get through things like this on an emotional aspect, not a physical. So, I guess I’ve transitioned in how I not only view my only life but in how I can make the most of my life worthwhile for others in my community.
What’s next? I might take some summer classes, and then I have one semester left before I graduate. After that, I don’t know. Before college I tried to plan everything out. I tried to plan out my entire career and what classes I was going to be taking each semester. Since my diagnosis, I don’t plan anymore. I take it day by day, moment by moment, because every time I try and plan something either I’m not feeling well or something comes up, and I have to change all my plans.
And, what I’ve found by taking it day by day, through living life in the moment, I’m able to see the natural beauty that we’re given. I don’t rely on a lot of resources. I can go outside and can see the beauty in things like dirt, and even cancer. As unfortunate as this is, I try and see it best as possible because those things are what we have in our lives. I try to appreciate everything – both good and bad – and to see the difference I can hopefully make.
