High school graduation is supposed to be one of the most memorable times in one’s life. Whether you are going off to college or starting a new career, graduation is a time where the entire world seems to be right in front of you. For Marissa Ierna, however, it was memorable for a completely different reason. On May 24, 2012, with just two weeks left before graduation, Ierna was diagnosed with stage three Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma.
Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, or ARMS, is a type of sarcoma most often seen in older children and teens, according to the American Cancer Society. ARMS usually occur in arms, legs, and large muscles in the chest or abdomen. The cancer cells damage the connective tissues in the body, such as muscles, fat, bones, and membranes that line the joints, or blood vessels. ARMS tends to grow quickly and usually requires an intensive treatment.
Born and raised on the First Coast, Ierna attended Sandalwood High School for her freshman and sophomore years before becoming a part of the first-ever graduating class at the newly built Atlantic Coast High School. There, Ierna excelled in lacrosse. She was also captain of the swim team and captain of the soccer team. It is no surprise that this half-marathon runner won most athletic of her class.
“I did not start lacrosse until I moved to the new high school,” Ierna said. “I knew nothing about it, but once I tried out for it
I was like, ‘Wow! I loved lacrosse!’ I wish I played that all of my life instead of soccer. ”
In February of 2012, half way through her senior year and just a few short months before her diagnosis, Ierna just finished playing a lacrosse game and noticed a strange bug bite on her lower right calf. The bite itself was not out of the ordinary, but it came with a lump that was. Ierna thought, at the time, that it was just a massive reaction to the bite. Little did she know, it would eventually grow to be a cancerous tumor. The bug bite eventually went away and Ierna just never paid any attention to the lump. She let it go for three months.
In May, during a spring break camping trip with her family, something woke Ierna in the middle of the night. She cannot remember if she was really awake or if it was just a dream, but in any event the message was crystal clear: “All I remember is a voice telling me, ‘Marissa that lump is still there. You need to get this checked out; it could be cancer.’”
A week after returning from spring break, Ierna went to the Jacksonville Orthopedic Institute and was given magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). At first, Ierna was diagnosed as stage three, due to the size of the tumor. But after a biopsy revealed that a speck of the tumor had traveled to her bone marrow, it became stage four. The day Ierna was diagnosed, she was literally getting ready to go to the University of North Florida (UNF) for orientation. The next day her life was put on hold.
Ierna’s high school graduation day was full of mixed emotions. She had an appointment at the Mayo Clinic to see an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in removing tumors. Ierna’s appointment was at 1 pm; graduation was at 4.
The orthopedic surgeon was very adamant that Ierna go through with surgery. This decision, however, came with some devastating consequences. The doctor indicated that the motion of her right foot would never be the same again. Driving would be extremely difficult, and she would always walk with a limp. Ierna, having completed three half-marathons before being diagnosed, had to face the fact that she might not ever be able to run again.
“I love, love, love running,” said Ierna. “I usually run 12 to 13 miles almost every weekend. I have an addiction to it.”
As devastating as this news was, Ierna felt it was what she was going to have to do. Riding this emotional roller coaster, Ierna had to stay strong. After leaving the appointment, she was on her way to walk with her class at graduation. “It was a pretty crazy day for what is supposed to be one of the happier days of your life,” Ierna said.
As fate would have it, Ierna’s mother, Diane, was given the number of an oncologist who specialized in sarcoma cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The doctor happened to be in town for a wedding the same exact weekend as Ierna’s graduation. Ierna and Diane met with the doctor to talk and go over some other possible options. “It was fate,” Ierna said.
After looking over Ierna’s test results, the doctor suggested that she should not go through with surgery. He sent Ierna’s test results to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa to get a second opinion. The doctors at Moffitt agreed, so Ierna called her doctor and cancelled the appointment for her surgery, which was now only a few days away.
Ierna was supposed to be starting summer classes at UNF, and instead she was starting 54 weeks of chemotherapy. Her first treatment was June 19, 2012. Ierna was admitted to Nemours Children Clinic because at the time she was seventeen and still a minor.
“I was really fortunate and did really well with the chemotherapy,” Ierna said. “A lot of it sucked, but I was able to stay strong through it all.”
One thing Ierna was never ashamed of was her bald head. She had somebody give her a bag of 150 bandanas when she was first diagnosed, and she put them up in her closet. They were never once touched. In fact, a professional photographer, who worked for Kelli Nichole Photography, approached Ierna via Facebook. The photographer loved that Ierna was proud of her “new look” and offered to take her pictures for free.
“I loved my bald head,” said Ierna. “I didn’t care about it, and I let people see it.”
Ierna’s dad, Todd, luckily had a boss who understood the situation and allowed him to work from his computer at the hospital. Diane had a demanding job running an entire department at Allstate, so missing work was not an option for her.
“We got very fortunate that neither one of them had to quit their jobs,” said Ierna. “Usually when you are talking to families that have had to go through this, one parent has to quit their job and do everything for the child, while the other one works.”
Ierna says that her heroes throughout this whole ordeal are her parents and brother, Nick. Because she did not have anybody else to lean on, her family became her everything. “My mom became my best friend, and she became the shoulder I could cry on whenever I needed it,” Ierna said. “My dad became my sleepover buddy because he spent 70 plus nights in the hospital with me.”
Nick stayed strong for his sister. Ierna could not grasp how her family was able to sit there and watch her go through every bad day and every good.
“I know how tough it was to watch me go through all the sucky things that I went through,” Ierna said. “But [my brother] never once showed a scared or sad face; all he could ever do was make me smile.”
When she was first diagnosed, she was told that she was getting a dream as a part of the Dreams Come True Foundation. Ierna’s dream was to swim with dolphins. That summer, her dream came true. Ierna and her family went to Atlantis’ Dolphin Bay and got to swim with
the dolphins twice.
Unbeknownst to Ierna, she was going to be blessed with another surprise. Halfway through her treatment, Ierna’s dream coordinator, Brandi, changed jobs and began working for the Tim Tebow Foundation. Brandi knew that Ierna loved Tim Tebow and always wanted to meet him.
Part of the Tim Tebow Foundation is called the W15H Program. According to the Tim Tebow Foundation’s website, W15H fulfills the dreams of children with life-threatening illnesses whose wish is to meet Tim Tebow. The foundation’s mission is “to bring faith, hope, and love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need.”
On January 29, Ierna received a call from Brandi stating that she had an opportunity for her. Tim Tebow was co-hosting on Good Morning America, and he wanted a W15H child to be a part of it with him. Brandi was about to arrange for Ierna to be that child.
Ierna got the call on Tuesday, and on Thursday, she and Diane were arriving in New York City. A limo was waiting for them at the airport to use at their disposal for the whole day. They got to enjoy a day of sightseeing, including lunch, dinner, Dylan’s Candy Bar, and the Empire State Building. The next day Ierna and her mother both got to appear on Good Morning America and meet Tim Tebow.
“My respect for him already was high, and when I met him I was amazed,” Ierna said. “[Tim Tebow] is probably one of the 
most influential, most amazing people I have ever had the chance to meet. It was an experience that I will never forget. It is just one of the things about having cancer that I am so thankful for.”
Ierna’s first treatment was on June 19, 2012. Her last treatment was almost a year later on June 17, 2013. Hopefully in July Ierna will be celebrating one year of being cancer free.
“I faced death in the eye, and I am still facing death,” Ierna said. “I will always face it because forever I will be considered a cancer patient. You never know when it’s going to come back, so you just have to live every day to the fullest.”
Ierna, now 19, has just finished her first year of taking online classes at UNF. She wants to attend Florida State University to peruse a degree in communications.
Ierna’s biggest hobbies are baking and running.
Ierna’s last half-marathon she ran before being diagnosed was the Tour de Pain in March of 2012. Her time was two hours and 11 minutes. Ierna’s first half-marathon back after beating cancer was the same half-marathon she ran almost a year before. Remarkably, she ran it 18 minutes faster, at one hour 53 min.
Ierna hopes to get up to running 15 miles without stopping. Currently, she is at 14.3. She hopes to complete a full marathon soon, setting her sights for the 26.2 with DONNA, as part of the Donna Deegan Foundation.
“Cancelling surgery was the best decision that I ever made,” Ierna said. “All I have is this little lump of dead tissue in my leg. Everyday I am thankful for that.”
Ierna is always looking forward, and her biggest goal right now would be to bring awareness to the world about childhood cancer. She really wants to work with the NFL in hopes of them having a childhood cancer month in September like they do in October with breast cancer.
“Cancer has changed the way I think completely,” Ierna said. “I never knew how fragile life was until I faced cancer in the eye. I have realized even more about how much I have to be thankful for. I would say cancer has pointed me towards my future with all of the opportunities it has provided me with.”
Favorite athlete: Mark Herzlich
Ideal place to travel: Italy
Favorite movie: Grease
Super power you wish you had: The ability to read minds
On the Flip Side/North Florida/June 2014
Marissa Ierna
Atlantic Coast High School
Jacksonville, FL
Jessica Babcock
High School Teen Beats Cancer, Returns to Long Distance Running
