“Life would not finish once they inform you, ‘You’ve most cancers,’ it retains on going,” Britney Moyeda, 18, tells PEOPLE
Courtesy of Texas Childrens Hospital
Britney Moyeda
Ever since she was a younger lady, 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 pleased with – as a result of I can truly show to different children that had most cancers that they’ll 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 assumed that was actually cool,” she says. She determined then that she ultimately needed to enlist.
However a 12 months later, when she was 12, Moyeda bought sick.
She remembers taking a nap after college, 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.
“Once they first advised me I had most cancers, I cried. After which I advised my mother every thing was gong to be nice,” she says. “I knew it was going to be nice – 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 Middle in 2018
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Britney went by way of 15 cycles of chemotherapy and 11 totally different medicines, 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 grow to be a Marine.
“I believe that is actually nice, that she’s been by way of every thing that she’s been by way of along with her most cancers therapy and has been in a position to make it by way of that and deal with 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.
“You need to have seen, it was like a thick guide of paperwork that I needed to disclose to the Marines. It was like 1,000, nearly 2,000 pages of paperwork for my most cancers remedies,” says Moyeda.
Courtesy of Texas Childrens Hospital
Britney Moyeda and one among her youthful sisters in 2018
When it got here time to attend bodily coaching classes, Moyeda confirmed up and did extra — and labored more durable — than the others.
“In the event that they wanted one thing I’d routinely go get no matter they wanted as quick as I may,” she says. “I put in additional effort they usually noticed the hassle that I needed to hitch.”
Finally, she shares that recruiters, her sergeant and her gunny sergeant labored to assist her meet her dream. “They didn’t cease till they bought me to it,” she provides.
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Nonetheless, as she ready to graduate from Angleton Excessive College on Could 24, 2024, Moyeda made certain 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 Middle’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
Thankfully, after spending the summer season in Mexico visiting household, Moyeda is about to depart for bootcamp on Aug. 26.
“I’m just a little scared, I’m just a little excited,” Moyeda tells PEOPLE. “I’m just a little little bit of every thing.”
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 way of most cancers to really feel the identical. She says, “Life doesn’t finish once they inform you, ‘You’ve most cancers,’ it retains on going.”
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