The Sweet 16 birthday is usually trademarked by everything motorized. Rarely does turning 16 also include cancer.
\I got diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. It was a week after I was 16,"" said UW-Madison freshman and cancer survivor Danielle Berkovitz.
Berkovitz's sophomore and junior years of high school were spent navigating the world of cancer, chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
""I didn't go to school at all second semester [sophomore year]. Basically I had no immune system left from the chemo,"" she said.
Her treatment took approximately seven months.
""I feel guilty sometimes because my treatment was really easy compared to a lot of stuff people go through, she said. ""I was really lucky.""
Though being diagnosed with lymphoma at 16 was without question a major curveball thrown into her life, for Berkovitz it was also an opportunity to become a part of something greater.
Her experiences led Berkovitz to become heavily involved with the American Cancer Society's annual ""Relay For Life"" fundraiser for cancer research in her hometown of Kewaunee, Wis. It calls on the public to create teams of 10 to 15 people to get donations to spend a night walking around a track.
""When I got diagnosed my friends and I decided, 'Well what the heck, let's just do it,'"" Berkovitz said. ""'Even if we can't raise any money, let's just do it.'""
However, she ended up getting more than she expected out of this deal as well.
""The night of the relay came, and they asked if I would want to speak,"" Berkovitz said. ""I prepared this whole thing about all the details of my sickness and then how it affected me as a person, and I started to cry because it was dark and I could hear all my friends crying in front of me but I couldn't see them. ... I think people saw how emotional and traumatic and everything that cancer can be.""
The American Cancer Society describes its ""signature activity,"" which started in 1985, as ""an outpouring of emotions-hope, unity, perseverance and triumph.""
Though today it is the biggest fund-raising event by a non-profit organization in the world, the relay started much more humbly in Tacoma, Wash.
According to Elizabeth Kelly, UW-Madison sophomore and public relations chair for the UW-Madison relay, it started 20 years ago when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a marathon runner, decided to spend 24 hours running around the University of Puget Sound track to raise money for the Cancer Society. Friends and family paid $25 to walk or run alongside him for segments of the 83-mile trek.
""The relays run for different amounts of time,"" Berkovitz said, ""but it's always overnight to signify the darkness of being diagnosed and then finding the hope of the day and the treatment.""
The relay that has since evolved from that first spring event now takes place in more than 20 countries and has raised over $2.5 billion for research. Its mission statement is broken down into four simple parts: finding a cure, spreading the word, calling for change and lending support.
""It's like one big camp out,"" Berkovitz said. ""And then people come together for the luminary ceremony. It's all lit up and it's like 11 o'clock at night so it looks really cool. It's an emotional thing, but it's really cool, too, to be around the people that are still survivors.""
Berkovitz will participate in the relay at UW-Madison Friday night.
As the relay approaches, the Madison relay planning committee is gearing up for a successful event.
""We have 80 teams this year, up from 60 last year,"" Kelly said. ""Last year we raised over $80,000, so our goal this year is bumped up to about $92,000.""
As for her own situation, Berkovitz has worked up to four to six months in between check-ups, although it will take five years for her to be declared in remission.
""There's so many different things that you have to [know] when you have cancer,"" she said. ""That's why I want to be a pediatric oncologist when I grow up.""
