18-Year-Old Attends High School Graduation Despite Battling Brain Cancer

Paula Liu
By Paula Liu
May 26, 2019News
share
18-Year-Old Attends High School Graduation Despite Battling Brain Cancer
Graduation cap. (Unsplash)

An 18-year-old girl who was diagnosed with brain cancer was able to attend her high school graduation ceremony, according to KVOA News 4 Tucson. Though restricted to a wheelchair, she was able to attend her graduation along with her friends.

Julia Moser is a high school teen who spent much of her final year in the hospital after she was diagnosed with brain cancer back in 2018. For her, it was hard to take in such a short period of time.

“It’s hard, it’s a lot,” Julia told KVOA. “I went from having a normal life to just everything just going horrible.”

In May 2018, her doctors discovered that Julia’s brain was bleeding. In order to deal with the bleed, doctors removed half of her skull to relieve the pressure. However, after numerous surgeries, doctors eventually realized that she had a tumor, which they had to promptly remove.

That was when Julia was notified that she had glioblastoma.

“That’s a very aggressive, deadly cancer,” Julia’s father, Russ Moser, told KVOA. “So a lot of things go through your mind.”

According to the Mayo clinic, glioblastoma can occur either in the brain or the spinal cord. It forms from cells called astrocytes, which serve to support nerve cells. It can occur in a person of any age but are most commonly found in older adults. Its effects on the body are headaches, nausea, vomiting, and seizures.

Because correct treatment is difficult to pinpoint and it is hard to determine which cure is effective at battling glioblastoma, a definite cure is often not possible. Despite that, treatment serves to slow the progress of the development of the cancer and lessen the symptoms.

Despite the diagnosis, she had always wanted to graduate high school alongside her friends. She had been constantly hooked up to machines to help with the glioblastoma and spoke about her desire to graduate after coming home from a treatment that required she spend 23 consecutive days in the hospital, according to KVOA.

Her father encouraged her back in April during her prom that she was going to beat this glioblastoma.

“She’s going to beat this,” Russ Moser told KVOA, “and she wants to make sure no other 17-year-old girl gets told she has stage 4 Glioblastoma and it’s incurable.”

Doctors were a little shocked at how long she was able to survive with her diagnosis, but Julia has a fighting spirit and she wasn’t going to give up her dreams because of this roadblock in her life.

With the help of her family and her boyfriend, Andres, who helped her by pushing her wheelchair to the football field where her graduation was held, she was able to graduate along with her friends, according to KVOA.

“I’m so happy because I’m here and I’m graduating and it’s crazy,” Julia said. “I did it, I’m like really here. I didn’t think I was going to do it but I did.”

Julia had, prior to this, been interviewed by KVOA back in April when she wanted to attend prom at her school, but she wasn’t able to. She thought she was going to miss her high school prom, but her friends managed to bring the prom to her.

Julia was able to get her makeup done to look pretty for her prom, and for her graduation, she did the same thing. Julia’s sister, Amanda, said Julia liked to have her eyelash make up done on her.

“When your future’s uncertain, you don’t dwell on it,” her father said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We’ve learned nothing is promised but we’re ok with that right now.”

Her family had also created a GoFundMe page for Julia in order to help out with her medical bills, and so far had raised $5,475 of its $30,000 goal so far.

ntd newsletter icon
Sign up for NTD Daily
What you need to know, summarized in one email.
Stay informed with accurate news you can trust.
By registering for the newsletter, you agree to the Privacy Policy.
Comments