Name: Julia Nemchenko
Dance Studio: Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education, Oklahoma
Why Julia is a voice for children fighting cancer:
As someone who’s lost a family member to Leukemia, I know what it’s like. Cancer is an unpredictable enemy; gone one moment, back stronger than ever the next. I heard the horror my grandpa was going through in his last days, about how he wished it could just end already and he could stop feeling this pain. A lot I still don’t know, because my family knows I wouldn’t be able to handle it. NO ONE should have to go through that. Especially children. Even the smallest symptoms (in the grand scheme of things), like hair loss, can cause insecurity and suffering. I want everyone fighting cancer to become a cancer survivor. Every adult, but even more so every child. Every story of beating cancer is a miraculous victory, and I want there to be more of those in this world. Whether it’s Leukemia, Lymphoma, or any other cancer out there, I stand up to cancer so that anyone who needs to survive this disease can do so.
