Katie’s Story

At 16 years old, on April 26, 2024, I was diagnosed with stage four non-small cell lung cancer—words that still don’t feel real, especially knowing medications like mine are usually supposed to work for at least a year or even a few years, and that hasn’t been my reality. My cancer is rare and driven by an ALK mutation, and while targeted oral therapy initially gave me hope, it stopped working far sooner than expected, leading to numerous scans and procedures, including a lung biopsy on January 30 of this year to confirm further progression in my lungs.

I’m currently waiting on those results to determine if I need to switch medications again because the ones I’m on aren’t working the way they’re supposed to, and I’m running out of options—one more oral therapy that’s still in clinical trials or chemotherapy.

Hearing the word chemo again right before I’m supposed to start college is terrifying, because all I want is to live a normal life, and it’s hard not to wonder how I’m supposed to do that with this possibility hanging over me.

Now 18, I’m still here and still fighting, and while cancer has taken so much from me—certainty, control, and the typical teenage experience—it has also given me perspective and a deep understanding of what it means to be a patient, which is why I’m hoping to become a child life specialist so I can be the support I’ve needed in the hardest, scariest moments and help kids feel seen, understood, and less alone, because my story isn’t about cancer winning—it’s about resilience, fear and hope existing side by side, and choosing to keep going even when the future feels incredibly uncertain.