Name: Tamyiah Baptiste
Age: 14
Dance Studio: C&C Dance Company, Maryland
Why Tamyiah wants to be a voice for children fighting cancer:
I would love to be apart of the dance hope cure program because I have a really good friend named Tatum. She is a 10 years old girl who lives in a small town in Oklahoma. In early 2016 Tatum started to have unexplained vomiting. They have referred her to gastroenterologist to find out were the constant vomiting was coming from. During that time Tatum was diagnosed with Bell Palsy on one side of her face. On March 30th 2016 the doctors ordered Tatum a CT of her brain because she started to develop a tumor, but her insurance was denying the information. At that time they sent her to the Emergency room and that’s when they performed a CT Scan. The tumor ended up being bigger in then a golf ball in her brain and then they diagnosed Tatum with Brain Cancer. After her surgery they performed 4/5/16 the type of cancer she was diagnosed with was medulloblastoma which is type of brain cancer. Tatum has had 32 proton therapies and 4 vincristine chemotherapies. Tatum had to learn how to walk without help after the tumor removal she has been admitted to the hospital for low immunity. Tatum is still doing chemotherapies and she is doing the best she can to go to school. I just want to help children believe in themselves I always tell Tatum “no matter what you will get through this I believe you can do it and to me when another children are told that they are beautiful or any other positive things from another person other then there parents it makes them feel good and confident. So it would be a wonderful honor to be apart of this program. I have a solo tributed to my friend Tatum which is called Gold I picked that solo because it represents childhood cancer and I would love share it with many many dancers so they can understand that these children who fighting for their lives need our help.
