“The doctor said, ‘You have Hodgkin’s, but chemo will treat it,’” she said. “I was just hit with a ton of bricks. I looked over at my mom, and she started crying, and I thought, ‘I am 20 years old. This should not be happening to me.’”

After receiving her diagnosis at the end of December 2011, Harris went against her mother’s wishes and chose to continue attending MSU, live in the Pi Beta Phi sorority house, 343 North Harrison Road, and pursue treatment at Sparrow Regional Cancer Center, 1215 East Michigan Ave., in Lansing. Despite her illness, Harris said she still maintains a sense of normalcy.

Keeping positive
Upon her arrival back at MSU, Harris made a promise to herself: she would live her life as though she didn’t have cancer and remain as positive as she possibly could. Her mom, Farmington Hills, Mich., resident Maureen Harris, urged her to stay, but she knew she had to come back.

“I was a little reluctant to let her go back to school,” Maureen said. “She was OK when she found out she had cancer, but leaving college she was not OK with.”

Although at first reluctant, Maureen said seeing her daughter come back has only made her stronger. Harris said without returning, she said she might have succumbed to her disease instead of rising above it.

“If I was at home right now, cancer would be getting the best of me,” she said.

“I would just be sitting in my room watching my life go before my eyes. But when I’m in an upbeat atmosphere (like the sorority house), I don’t feel sorry for myself whatsoever.”

When she first arrived, everyone was paying extra attention to her — including sending her flowers — but she didn’t feel freaked out by the situation at all.

“I don’t really want to be treated like a cancer patient,” she said. “I don’t feel sorry for myself, so why should anyone else?”
Sparrow Cancer Center oncologist Vesna Kaluza said an optimistic outlook often is what gets patients through their disease.

“Overall, patients with a positive attitude perform better and respond to treatment better,” she said.

“They do better when they maintain their mental and physical health.”

The cancer
Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a rare cancer of the lymph nodes that affects fewer than 9,000 people between the ages of 15-30 annually, had been present in Harris’ system for weeks — by the time of her diagnosis, a dense tumor on her neck had grown to almost 18 centimeters, and she broke out in rashes and experienced flu-like symptoms.

While Harris thought she was experiencing nothing more than a common cold, her tumor had grown so large that it put her trachea out of line and made it difficult for her to breathe.

She thought the rashes were a reaction from a tanning booth she used before her sorority’s semiformal.

Harris began receiving chemotherapy treatments in January, and since then, she says her tumor, which she and her friends jokingly named “Barb,” has shrunk dramatically.

After chemo, she will undergo radiation therapy every weekday for a month to prevent cancer cells from dividing.

A system of support
Harris planned on taking 16 credits this semester, but after she was diagnosed, she decided to drop all but one class. Because of fatigue from her chemo, she still finds it difficult to get her homework done on time. And as her friends and sorority sisters get ready to go out for the weekend, Harris doesn’t have the energy to partake in every activity.

“The social aspect of her life is so different,” said elementary education sophomore Kelly Stevens, a friend of Harris’.

“We’re all going out, and she’s really bummed out. The biggest bump in the road for her is she can’t keep up because of the chemo.”

Despite all this, she was determined to stay with her friends.

“I love it here because that’s where my support system is,” Harris said.

On Feb. 4, all who support her stood up in her honor at the luminary ceremony at MSU’s Greek Relay for Life. Her friends and sorority sisters wore violet ribbons in their hair — a color representing Hodgkin’s — and unfurled banners saying “We support our sister Meg.”

“I was sobbing,” she said. “I don’t think words in this realm could describe it. It was so empowering to see everybody around me standing up.”

Harris also keeps a daily blog of her experiences,
which she said makes all the difference for her and her loved ones who show concern.

As for Harris, she said her fight is just a bump in the road on the way to living a successful life.

“I’m stronger than my cancer, so I know I’m going to beat this,” she said.

“I’m on this marathon right now, and there’s a finish line, I just don’t know where it is.”