When I finally asked Tiarnee if she fears death, she erupted with a 'Hell no!' Then she goes on.“The biggest load of bullshit is that you’re more creative when you’re high. Her head may be bloody, but it's unbowed. She's already looking for donations of new clothes, shoes, and wigs for the participants in the program. Along with her hospital work, she raises money for research to help other cancer patients and intends to start her own program that encourages and assists men and women who suffer from cancer to 'stay beautiful' despite the hardships they are facing.

But remission is not an impossibility.Īlthough Tiarnee can no longer run basketball plays such as 'Trap Girl,' drain three pointers, celebrate victories, and embrace the losses, she has found other ways to engage with world. 7 of last year-her 22nd birthday-showed traces of cancer. The longest she has ever been cancer-free is 10 months.

Tiarnee has never been in complete remission. She now works as a physical therapist technician at Johns Hopkins Hospital-the same hospital where she was got that life-changing news at 13. I consider Tiarnee a superhero and whenever I start bitching and moaning, I always think about Tiarnee and what she's faced and gulp down my cries. It's the same spirit that had her fighting her mom on the way to the hospital and the one that told her doctor they were 'bullshittin'' and she had a game to play. During her recovery of this surgery, she says her grandmother told her, 'It's not your turn yet.'ĭespite the many times Tiarnee has been plugged up to machines, unable to walk, breathe, or talk, plagued by suicidal thoughts, she has persevered. A September 2015 surgery to remove cancer from her liver was her 'worst surgery ever.' It was so spiritually, mentally, and physically damaging that she considered suicide by overdosing on prescription pills. She missed what added up to over two years of high school and college during recovery due to numerous appointments and six surgeries. She bitterly recalls people attempting to do things for her such as take her out on dates or to the prom because they felt sorry for her.Īfter graduating high school in 2012, Tiarnee attended Saint Peters University in Jersey City and received her bachelors degree in science and health with a concentration in physical therapy in May 2016.Īt times, however, anxiety and depression and the trauma of recovery haunt her. Tiarnee went through chemotherapy every Thursday all through high school. I thought to myself 'Oh my god, my edges are gonna be gone.'' 'I was ignorant I heard so much bad stuff about chemo: It kills people. Tiarnee keeps a sense of humor about it all-renal cell carcinoma is typically found in men in the age range of 60 and up, and for a young woman to get this type of cancer is rare, so she sarcastically calls herself 'The Lucky One.' She is frank about her experience with chemotherapy.

'I don't ever want anybody to feel pity for me,' she says. She attended Polytechnic High School and was frequently bullied for the face mask that she wore along with her uniform-due to her fragile immune system. She went back to school in May and graduated from Cardinal Shehan Middle School that June. She says she felt as if she was in 'a freak show.'īut Tiarnee recovered quickly and was released from the hospital. One night she woke up in the hospital to her father watching a basketball game, and promptly yelled 'What's the score?'įor the next two months, she stayed in the hospital with doctors running in and out of her room to check in on her. While she recovered, basketball stayed on her mind. Her doctors predicted Tiarnee would be dead very soon, maybe even shortly after her surgery. 'You might not be able to play basketball for a while,' the doctor told her.Ībout three weeks after that game she lost to laziness, Tiarnee received her first surgery, which removed the blockage between her heart and lung and removed her right kidney. 'Y'all are bullshittin', I have basketball to finish,' Tiarnee said.

Yaters gonna yate