Your Stories: Conquering Cancer

While his teenage classmates were getting ready for school, then-13-year-old Sean Swarner was watching the water rise in the shower, his hair clogging the drain. His first cancer diagnosis—and the subsequent treatment regimen—took an immense toll on his self-image and well-being. That morning in the shower, he remembers, all of the fear and despair overcame him: Sean collapsed to his knees, tears and tap water streaming down his face. “I remember looking at myself in the mirror,” he recalls, “and I couldn’t even recognize who was looking back.” After a year of treatment, Sean reached remission. But then, two years later—during a follow-up with his oncologist—Sean and his parents received shocking news. His doctor had found a second cancer: an Askin sarcoma, a rare and aggressive tumor in his chest that eventually left him with only one functioning lung. Worse still, Sean’s chances of survival appeared slim. In the years to follow, Sean became the first cancer survivor to summit Mount Everest, before eventual