“Life would not finish once they inform you, ‘You might have most cancers,’ it retains on going,” Britney Moyeda, 18, tells PEOPLE
Courtesy of Texas Childrens Hospital
Britney Moyeda
Ever since she was a younger woman, Britney Moyeda had her sights set on becoming a member of the Marine Corps. Now, years after surviving most cancers, she’s simply weeks away from beginning bootcamp.
“I’m very excited,” Moyeda, now 18, tells PEOPLE. “It’s one thing to be happy with – as a result of I can truly show to different children that had most cancers that they will do no matter they need in life and nothing can cease them.”
When Moyeda was in 5th grade, she noticed a classmate’s father at commencement in his Marine Corps uniform. “I believed that was actually cool,” she says. She determined then that she ultimately needed to enlist.
However a yr later, when she was 12, Moyeda obtained sick.
She remembers taking a nap after faculty, and when she awakened, she couldn’t stand. “I fell,” she says. “Half of my physique wasn’t working.”
She was recognized with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on Could 25, 2018.
“After they first advised me I had most cancers, I cried. After which I advised my mother every part was gong to be fantastic,” she says. “I knew it was going to be fantastic – I simply felt it. I wasn’t scared.”
Courtesy of Texas Childrens Hospital
Britney Moyeda and her mother within the Texas Youngsters’s Most cancers and Hematology Heart in 2018
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Britney went by 15 cycles of chemotherapy and 11 completely different drugs, and a number of blood transfusions. After years of therapy, she rang the bell being declared cancer-free at Texas Youngsters’s Hospital on September 7, 2020.
She was additionally nonetheless decided to change into a Marine.
“I feel that is actually nice, that she’s been by every part that she’s been by along with her most cancers therapy and has been capable of make it by that and concentrate on a long-term purpose like becoming a member of the Marines and serving our nation,” says Dr. Tim Porea, Texas Youngsters’s Hospital pediatric oncologist and retired U.S. Navy Captain.
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However first, Texas Youngsters’s needed to ship her medical information to recruiters.
“It’s best to have seen, it was like a thick guide of paperwork that I needed to divulge to the Marines. It was like 1,000, virtually 2,000 pages of paperwork for my most cancers therapies,” says Moyeda.
Courtesy of Texas Childrens Hospital
Britney Moyeda and considered one of her youthful sisters in 2018
When it got here time to attend bodily coaching periods, Moyeda confirmed up and did extra — and labored tougher — than the others.
“In the event that they wanted one thing I’d mechanically go get no matter they wanted as quick as I may,” she says. “I put in further effort they usually noticed the trouble that I needed to affix.”
In the end, she shares that recruiters, her sergeant and her gunny sergeant labored to assist her meet her dream. “They didn’t cease till they obtained me to it,” she provides.
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Nonetheless, as she ready to graduate from Angleton Excessive Faculty on Could 24, 2024, Moyeda made positive she had some choices “simply in case I didn’t make it into the Marine Corps.”
As a back-up plan, the teenager — who can also be part of Texas Youngsters’s Most cancers and Hematology Heart’s Lengthy-Time period Survivor Program — earned certificates in welding, floral design, culinary arts and earned a CNA certificates.
Courtesy of Texas Childrens Hospital
Britney Moyeda along with her mother and father after her most cancers therapy in 2020
Happily, after spending the summer time in Mexico visiting household, Moyeda is ready to go away for bootcamp on Aug. 26.
“I’m a little bit scared, I’m a little bit excited,” Moyeda tells PEOPLE. “I’m a little bit little bit of every part.”
However most significantly, she’s able to face no matter life has in retailer for her — and he or she desires different children who’ve gone by most cancers to really feel the identical. She says, “Life doesn’t finish once they inform you, ‘You might have most cancers,’ it retains on going.”
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