ACS helps student cancer survivors
Jose Lopez-Bribiesca, Assistant Lifestyles Editor
Issue date: 1/24/06 Section: Lifestyles
- Page 1 of 2 next >
If cancer is a difficult disease to confront, then it is even harder when the patient is on the path toward obtaining a college degree.
In Arkansas alone, there were 14,950 estimated cases of cancer in 2005, according to the American Cancer Society Web site, Cancer.org.
Because of these statistics, the ACS has made a scholarship fund available for cancer survivors, realizing the battle against cancer "can be an enormous financial and emotional hardship, especially on young people," according to the Web site.
Last year, four northwest Arkansas students received the scholarship, and two of them are UA students.
Cassie Fincher, senior speech-language pathology major from Springdale, is one of the UA recipients of the scholarship.
Fincher said the scholarship helped pay a large portion of her tuition, about half of what she needed for the semester.
"It's helped me out a lot," Fincher said, who added she is in the process of applying for the award again, this time for graduate school.
Fincher has received the scholarship for the last four years. However, she said she is not guaranteed to receive it automatically because she is "given a fair shot just like everyone else."
Rhonda Bramell, marketing and communications specialist for the ACS in Fayetteville, said the money for the scholarship comes from fundraising that takes place in the mid-South division.
Last year, 175 students received scholarships in the ACS mid-South division, 17 from Arkansas. Some winners received it for the first time while others, like Fincher, renewed the scholarship.
In order to qualify for the scholarship, a recipient must have been diagnosed with cancer before age 21. Fincher was diagnosed at age 3 with acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL.
ALL is a form of cancer that begins in the white blood cells in the bone marrow. The disease moves quickly to the blood stream, and occurs rapidly and suddenly. ALL accounts for the majority of childhood leukemia cases.
In Arkansas alone, there were 14,950 estimated cases of cancer in 2005, according to the American Cancer Society Web site, Cancer.org.
Because of these statistics, the ACS has made a scholarship fund available for cancer survivors, realizing the battle against cancer "can be an enormous financial and emotional hardship, especially on young people," according to the Web site.
Last year, four northwest Arkansas students received the scholarship, and two of them are UA students.
Cassie Fincher, senior speech-language pathology major from Springdale, is one of the UA recipients of the scholarship.
Fincher said the scholarship helped pay a large portion of her tuition, about half of what she needed for the semester.
"It's helped me out a lot," Fincher said, who added she is in the process of applying for the award again, this time for graduate school.
Fincher has received the scholarship for the last four years. However, she said she is not guaranteed to receive it automatically because she is "given a fair shot just like everyone else."
Rhonda Bramell, marketing and communications specialist for the ACS in Fayetteville, said the money for the scholarship comes from fundraising that takes place in the mid-South division.
Last year, 175 students received scholarships in the ACS mid-South division, 17 from Arkansas. Some winners received it for the first time while others, like Fincher, renewed the scholarship.
In order to qualify for the scholarship, a recipient must have been diagnosed with cancer before age 21. Fincher was diagnosed at age 3 with acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL.
ALL is a form of cancer that begins in the white blood cells in the bone marrow. The disease moves quickly to the blood stream, and occurs rapidly and suddenly. ALL accounts for the majority of childhood leukemia cases.
