Teen Battling Cancer and Nurse Sing Together in Heartwarming Video
When you’re a young adult pursuing education in something you’re passionate about, you expect difficulties. Tough courses, figuring out how to pay for college, tests and all-nighters are all par for the course.
What you don’t expect, is cancer.
But that’s what 19-year-old Molly Oldham from Charlotte, North Carolina, had to contend with last year when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Soon, it was more than just the tennis-ball-sized tumor in her brain that she had to deal with: She started experiencing seizures.
“It was just like one after the other after the other,” Oldham said, according to WCNC. “It was really hard.”
“I just wanted to be a normal 19-year-old,” she said. “And when I was diagnosed with cancer, I realized, OK, that probably isn’t going to happen for a while.”
She had to leave school and focus on getting treated and getting well again — but she didn’t entirely shelve her passion.
“I just want to, I want to do my craft,” Oldham said. “I want to sing with my friends, I want to dance with my friends. They didn’t know if I was going to be able to talk, to be able to dance. They didn’t know if I was going to be able to walk.”
Many of the nurses have been good sports and played along, either singing or dancing with their talented patient and having fun, too.
“You have days you go to work and you have all these crazy things happen, and you’re exhausted and you feel like I’m not made for this, I’m not strong enough for this,” nurse Grace Perry said.
“And then you have days where you go to work and you see Molly. There’s just nothing better than getting to spend time with people like her.”
“To have a lot of people, not just one or two, but a lot of people just let me be me, even in the hospital, sing with me dance with me make jokes with me, it was so relieving,” Oldham said.
“Even if it was for a short amount of time. I just got to be me.”
One nurse in particular, David Duckett, surprised Oldham with his voice, and the resulting video has been making the rounds.
“To have moments like that makes you feel like yes, this is this is my why, why I do this day in and day out,” Duckett said. “This is why we do what we do.”
“Just singing with him just brought me so much joy,” Molly explained. “Like even thinking about it, I’m just smiling.”
“Everyone has something that brings them down, everyone has a challenge in life,” Oldham said. “But if you can just hold on to those things that are good … if you can find something that brings you joy, and you can hold on to that — your life is going to be so much brighter.”
According to WCNC, Oldham is now cancer-free and can once again focus on her craft — and this time, with a few more fans.
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