Life changing event

Impressions last a lifetime and there is one person in particular who made a huge difference in my life. It all started a few weeks before school started when a list of my teachers appeared in the mailbox.

In those weeks, I figured it would be another school year and nothing special about it either, well, except for the fact that I was going to have two of my brother’s teachers and that it was my last year in middle school.

The first day of school came and one of the teachers didn’t even realize that I was Greg’s sister, but Mrs. Lyon sure did! Right then she stopped and took me to see Mrs. Achey and told here whose sister I was. Mrs. Lyon never forgot who I was, nor did Mrs. Achey after that!

The year progressed and Mrs. Lyon could no longer deny the fact that she was pregnant, and I was having a great year. At the semester, Mrs. Lyon was towards the end of her second trimester and I was getting excited!

After Christmas break, Mrs. Lyon didn’t come back and we were told that she was having “problems”. Because of these “complications,” Landon Charles Lyon was born about two months before his due date.

These “complications” were finally discovered through many, many trips to the doctor’s office. Mrs. Lyon was back teaching when they finally found out that she had a basketball size tumor growing on her kidney. And doctors had told her and her family that this tumor was cancerous. Renal cell carcinoma, they called it.

The school year ended and I always kept up with her. There were many people who did this, but of her students there were just a few. She continued her treatments and seemed to improve, but the doctors found spots in her lungs and other places. This meant the cancer had gotten into her bloodstream and there was nothing left to do.

Mrs. Lyon saw Landon’s first birthday, but died two weeks later. Through this I have searched more about cancer and its research, and have even joined in the fight to cure cancer. Cancer doesn’t discriminate and it could happen to anyone. So each year I volunteer many hours to raise money for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

My first year a friend walked with me, but since then we’ve stepped it up a bit and started a team ourselves. My friend became co-captain alongside me. Each year since her death, I have been involved with this organization, and each year I, unfortunately, have to add another name to the reason I relay.

I, too, have gotten my parents, other friends, and classmates to help in the fight, no matter where in the world I go, I will try my absolute best to be a part of this yearly event in some way.

I will not let cancer win and I will fight for Mrs. Lyon and all the other cancer victims, survivors, and the newly diagnosed.