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Grace Wethor was just 13 when she was told she only had 6 months left to live, the devastating prognosis of a fatal, inoperable tumor on her brain stem
Wethor said that “miraculously,” the tumor hasn’t grown — even without treatment — and she’s now an advocate for brain cancer research and an author, speaker and actress
“I try to live every day as an adventure, because no one is guaranteed any amount of time,” said Wethor, who is now 23
A woman who was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor at 13 years old has outlasted doctors’ predictions that she’d die in six months — and now, a decade later, she’s an advocate for brain cancer research.
Grace Wethor was just 13 when she was given a bleak prognosis; The teenager, who had been struggling with headaches and seizures, was diagnosed with a glioma, a tumor in her brain stem.
The National Cancer Institute says that for patients with gliomas — a malignant, fast-growing type of cancer — surgery is the first line of treatment. But in Wethor’s case, treatment wasn’t an option, and she was given an 8% chance of survival.
“Because my tumor is so difficult to treat, I was able to leave the hospital and spend my ‘last six months’ doing what I love,” Wethor, now 23, said of her 2015 diagnosis, according to The Daily Mail.
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Stock image of a young woman talking to her doctor.
“During those first six months, when I thought they might be my last, I made it a mission to do something creative every single day,” said Wethor, who spent time with her family visiting museums, and taught herself to play guitar — endeavors that she said were “crucial to keeping my mind off my diagnosis and current health circumstances.”
But instead of focusing on death, she chose to live: At 15, she gave a TED talk about how her diagnosis “was one of the most positive things that has ever happened to me because it forced me to do the things that I love now.”
When Wethor was 16, she published the book “You’re So Lucky”: The Story Of The Three Years Between about her time living with cancer. Now a model and actress, she’s also a spokesperson for the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation and has advocated for more funding for youth healthcare.
She said she’s hopeful that “one day a trial or new treatment will emerge that can help tumors in this area of the brain.”
Shockingly, all this time, Wethor never received treatment for her tumor — which, as regular scans showed, didn’t spread.
“My doctors can’t explain why I have survived. I still have my tumor, but miraculously, it has not grown,” said Wethor, who explained that she manages the headaches and other symptoms by staying physically healthy and practicing mindfulness.
“It’s not always perfect, but I’ve found ways to work with my body rather than against it,” Wethor said. “Most days, I’m able to live a full and relatively normal life … I don’t assume I have time.”
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She shared that when she was first diagnosed, therapists asked her about her thoughts on dying. But she explained, “Really what I should have been asked was if I was afraid of living – living with this reality and wondering how long I and others could live under that stress and unknown.”
These days, Wethor said, “I try to live every day as an adventure, because no one is guaranteed any amount of time, brain tumor or no brain tumor, and this experience has made that impossible to ignore.”
Read the original article on People
