Outback-bound FB alumna has come a long way

Cheryl Harding

   Seventeen-year-old Cheryl Ann Harding is headed for the Australian Outback - a 10-day trip courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation - but the journey the Flour Bluff High School graduate can't wait to begin is one that will mold her into a pediatric surgeon.
   Diagnosed in the eighth grade with pheochromocytoma, a rare tumor, Cheryl is in remission and will begin college this fall at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where she plans to major in zoology with a health pre-profession emphasis. Inspired by the surgeon she credits for saving her life, Cheryl plans to pursue her medical degree at Stanford University.
   "I want to be in little kids' eyes what Dr. (Mark) Morales is with his own patients," Cheryl said. "Without him doing the surgery he did, I wouldn't have lived through my high school years. He is definitely my hero and that is what I want to be for other kids."
   Although she knew at a young age that she wanted to work with children, Cheryl said it wasn't until she came face-to-face with her own mortality that her future became clear.
   That life-defining experience began during an eye exam when it was discovered Cheryl was hemorrhaging behind both eyes. Two weeks later, she was diagnosed with a tumor and eventually had it removed from abdominal arteries and veins.
   Last year, during a follow-up MRI, doctors found that the cancerous tumor had reappeared in her abdomen and two other cancerous tumors had developed in her right lung. The tumors were surgically removed and Cheryl underwent chemotherapy.
   Laura Amador, a hematology/oncology department social worker who has worked with cancer patients at Driscoll Children's Hospital for the past three years, said patients like Cheryl are a humbling reminder that what she learned in undergraduate and graduate school is just a beginning.
   "I come to work every day and I learn," Amador said. "These young patients teach you things about life that I could never learn from books or professors. You think you know everything until you meet Cheryl."
   Everyone has a destiny, Amador said. "Some fulfill it and others give up. She's one of the ones that hasn't given up and I don't think ever will."
   Inner strength, said Morales, a pediatric cardiac surgeon at Driscoll, is Cheryl's greatest asset.
   "If she can beat this down, she can do anything in life," he said. "She's very determined, charismatic and mature for her age, and I have no doubt she'll make a very compassionate doctor."
   Cheryl, recipient of a $1,000 scholarship from the Marcia K. Wilcox Scholarship Fund at Driscoll, is confident her experiences will help her connect with young patients with catastrophic illnesses in a way not possible had she never battled cancer herself.
   "It could have been all over for me," Cheryl said. "I'm aware now that everything can change in the blink of an eye. And that's why I try to make the most of every minute."