Written by Madelyn Perry
“I’m a survivor”. The words that took me a long time to say out loud. The words that I didn’t think would be true 4 years ago. I had just graduated college where I was figuring out what my next steps were when I started to have double vision. Thinking it was only a prescription concern turned into being told I had a benign pituitary tumor, which then turned into surgery to remove most of it. I felt like I could start to breathe and get back to being a college graduate. All to find out 3 weeks later it was a malignant chondrosarcoma in my brain and I needed 7 weeks of daily radiation. Silence. A deep breath, prayer, and I was ready to get to work with my support system by my side.
I finished treatment and about a month later, I met Kelly, (pictured left) and without her I wouldn’t be able to tell my story. She would quickly become a friend and who encouraged me to jumpstart my advocacy for brain tumor awareness. Kelly’s mom, Vicki, battled brain cancer 2 years before we met. Although Vicki was not healed, Kelly continues to carry on her legacy by being an advocate through Head For The Cure. I truly believe God placed Kelly in my life for us to lean on each other. She is now one of my closest friends. Community is what got me through treatment, and is also what gets me through my appointments and scans. I wouldn’t be here without God and my community who have helped celebrate my highs and have comforted me during my lows. I am blessed to have recently been moved out to yearly scans and even more blessed to have my people beside me. I am here today to advocate for more research and treatment options and for more people to be able to say “I’m a survivor”.