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May 21, 2009 7:04 pm US/Central
Teen Who Had Same Cancer As MN Boy Urges Chemo
(WCCO)
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Sarah Sandquist believes chemotherapy would do the same thing for Daniel Hauser, who also has Hodgkin's Lymphoma, as it did for her.
CBS
A young woman who had the same cancer as Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old who refuses to have chemotherapy, has also has a message for Daniel and his mom.
Sarah Sandquist wants them to know that cancer can be cured. She believes Daniel needs to see a doctor before his cancer grows even more.
"I'm really scared for him," she remarked about Daniel. "No one wants to go through chemotherapy. ... It's a tough thing to go through, but he's going to make it."
Her own story starts with sickness. She was 13 years old when doctors diagnosed her with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Her lymph nodes were swollen and there were tumors throughout her body -- some of them the size of fruit.
Sandquist was in stage four of the cancer, and she said she had no choice but get four rounds of chemotherapy.
"To save my life ... like if I didn't do it, I knew it wouldn't be good, and I would have probably died," she said.
She believes chemotherapy would do the same thing for Daniel Hauser who also has Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
He has a 90 percent to 95 percent chance of surviving with radiation and chemotherapy. Without both, he only has a 5 percent chance of surviving, doctors say.
On top of medicine, Sarah also believes she made it because of support from friends, family, and classmates. They visited her at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis and they prayed.
"It was just really positive. It helped to keep my spirits up," she remarked. "I had all my family."
Now as a 19-year-old college student, Sandquist is also planning her future.
Her plans include a career in front of the camera modeling or in front of a classroom teaching after she graduates from the University of Minnesota.
She's now in control of her life and ready to write the next chapter -- considered cured of cancer.
"It's a success story -- I mean it's a positive thing. I beat cancer, it's something to be proud of," she said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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