MILWAUKEE — "It's never something that you expect to hear or want to hear," says Sarah Rose, a senior volleyball player for Marquette.
In September, Sarah Rose was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a pediatric strain of bone cancer.
"I didn't honestly know what to think at the beginning. A lot of things were racing through my mind about volleyball, life, school, everything," says Sarah.
A senior set to graduate in December of 2020, begin her graduate degree, and compete on the court - Sarah's initial reaction may have been fear, but her next was to fight.
"One thing is that I know I'm strong and that I can do this and that I have that mentality because of Marquette volleyball," says Sarah. "So far I've completed five months of chemo and I had recently just finished radiation about two weeks ago. My first scan I got two months ago showed significant shrinkage of the tumor. I will get another scan in a couple of weeks to see how it has progressed with the treatment since then."
Receiving treatment in Chicago, her family in Elmhurst has been with her every step of the way, while her family in Milwaukee has kept her as close as they can.
"They always send such kind words of encouragement and are always checking in on me. I couldn't ask for a better support system than my teammates. They really do care about me so much and always want to know how I am doing and what they can do to help me. I'm just really lucky to have all of them and they have been so supportive this whole time," says Sarah.
With one of their own fighting, Marquette Athletics wanted to show support for Sarah while impacting the disease as a whole. That's how #Gold4Sarah began, with all currently competing Marquette teams wearing gold in her honor and raising funds for cancer patients and research.
"It's not just for me, it's for all of pediatric cancer which means even more because it's supporting something bigger than just me. I think it's just as much of a team fight as volleyball is, fighting cancer. You get inspired by people who did it before and I hope that one day I can be that for somebody," says Sarah.
If you would like to donate in Sarah's honor, click here.
