Gavin McDaniel
Beating cancer and creating memories
Read on to learn how the Blessing Foundation and a local basketball team made a difference in Gavin McDaniel’s life
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The nursing student was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Donors allowed him to stay in school while undergoing treatment & later gave him the trip of a lifetime
Gavin McDaniel was sitting alone in his apartment when his doctor called to say she needed him to come in for more blood tests, that the spot she thought was a cyst could in fact be cancer.
Gavin, 20 at the time, started to cry.
“I remember it well … awful day,” Gavin said. “I was scared. I was alone.”
Gavin was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma on Nov. 15, 2017. It was a lot to take in, especially because he lost his mom to cancer just a year and a half earlier. His grandpa died of cancer two and a half years before his mom.
But Gavin soon realized that he wasn’t fighting his diagnosis alone.
In addition to family he got an outpouring of support from his instructors at the Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing & Health Sciences and from the Blessing Foundation.
“The Foundation … they can anticipate your needs,” he said. “I didn’t have to worry about anything.”
Fighting cancer & staying in school
Gavin was in his second year of nursing school and didn’t want to sit out because of his treatment. But he also had to continue working to pay bills.
“I was going to have to pick between working and going to school. My body wasn’t going to physically let me do both,” Gavin said.
The Blessing Foundation stepped in, using a fund set up for Blessing-Rieman students in crisis. They helped with rent and other expenses, so Gavin could continue attending classes and focus on his health.
“The most important thing for me was to stay in school,” Gavin said. “My mom – that was one of her biggest things, to get an education. When my mom passed away, I knew I wanted to become a nurse, and that made nursing school even more important for me. Without the Blessing Foundation, I would not have made it. I can 100 percent, whole-heartedly say that.”
Gavin endured six months of intense chemotherapy treatment at the Blessing Cancer Center. Toward the end of his treatment, he developed appendicitis and needed surgery, and that meant his final chemotherapy treatment was on hold.
Once he was ready to get his final treatment in June, his oncologist first did a PET scan, which revealed good news.
Gavin was in remission.
‘Creating Memories’: The trip of a lifetime
Meanwhile, the Blessing Foundation once again was at work to make a difference in Gavin’s life.
A thoughtful nurse at the Cancer Center nominated Gavin to be a recipient of a Creating Memories grant – a program started by the Quincy University women’s basketball team in 2011 to help grant wishes to local cancer patients.
The team raises money through various fundraisers during the basketball season and works with the Cancer Center and the Foundation to coordinate a wish four times a year.
Gavin’s wish was to visit one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World – the Grand Canyon.
“My mom always wanted to travel, and she never did. It was always, ‘We’ll wait, we’ll wait, we’ll wait.’ I decided that I had Stage 4 cancer and I had to stop waiting and start doing. Life is way too short.”
He and a friend drove to Arizona and arrived at Grand Canyon National Park on Aug. 4, 2018. He’d seen it in movies, of course, but taking in its immense size in person was almost indescribable.
“I almost cried. It’s just so beautiful,” he said.
They did a lot of sightseeing and walking while at the Grand Canyon. On the drive home, they stopped in Glenwood Springs to hike the Hanging Lake Trail and in Colorado Springs to visit Pikes Peak.
“It was a lot of fun,” Gavin said. “I would have never been able to do this trip without the Blessing Foundation donors.”
Gavin wants donors to understand how their generosity makes a difference in people’s lives.
“The Blessing Foundation is a saving grace for a lot of people,” he said. “You’re able to focus on you and what you need to do and not worry about other things because they do that for you.”
What is the Blessing Foundation?
Since 1983, the Blessing Foundation has been giving back to the community that has given so much to all of us. The charitable foundation distribute grants, scholarships and financial assistance to individuals and families to help them on their healthcare journeys.
For more information about the Blessing Foundation or to discuss a donation or gift, call (217) 223-8400, ext. 4800, or email us at BlessingFoundation@blessinghealth.org
