While many students are buckling down and stressing out about a semester of tests and term papers ahead, other students approach classes with a positive perspective. They credit their outlook to surviving cancer.

About 1.4 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, according the Lance Armstrong Foundation Web site.

A 2005 study showed about 65,600 cancer patients were classified as adolescents and young adults.

Three cancer survivors — zoology senior Jennifer Wallace, marketing junior TJ Hutchings and multi-disciplinary science senior Danny O’Donnell — are working to do in Oklahoma what Armstrong has done for cancer sufferers around the country. They are using their experiences with the disease to help other cancer patients.

Jennifer Wallace

During high school in Oklahoma City, Wallace was an enthusiastic honors student hoping to play volleyball at a high-profile, out-of-state university.

When she was 16 years old, however, she went to the doctor because she noticed she felt much weaker than usual.

“Just getting out of the shower, drying my hair and getting dressed made me out of breath,” she said. “I would have to sit down.”

She was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the blood cells, in March 2003.

ALL is the most common form of childhood leukemia, the National Cancer Institute’s Web site states, although Wallace said survival rates decrease significantly for ALL patients who are older than 10.

Wallace started an aggressive course of treatment at The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center.

Although her cancer went into remission within a month, she underwent the 32-month program of chemotherapy and steroids recommended for ALL patients and faced some unexpected obstacles.

Wallace said she had an allergic reaction to medication making her unable to walk and she had to relearn to walk once the effects wore off after several days. She also contracted pancreatitis, and said she was neutropenic throughout her course of chemotherapy, meaning that even the lowest fever landed her in the emergency room.

“The [chemotherapy] wasn’t working at first with my body the way [doctors] thought it would,” Wallace said. “That was scary. That was my first inkling of the idea that I might not get better, which was really upsetting for me. I had just kept thinking ‘I’m going to beat this.’”

With only a centimeter of hair left, Wallace was able to graduate on time, and her classmates even crowned her homecoming queen.

She said that her cancer was a major factor in her decision to come to OU, not only because of her lost dreams of collegiate volleyball, but she had developed relationships with the doctors that she didn’t want to leave behind.

“There was no way I could be away from my support system, [or] leave the hospital I was still getting treatment at,” she said.

Wallace said once she started classes at OU, she structured her medical appointments around classes she could afford to miss. She said most of her instructors were understanding about her condition.

Now cancer free, Wallace has decided to give back to the cancer community.

She has joined the UOSA-sponsored American Cancer Society Relay for Life fund-raiser the past four years. This year she is the event’s chairwoman.

Wallace is on the board of directors of the Oklahoma Children’s Cancer Association. She also started a weekly art therapy group for child cancer patients at the hospital where she received treatment just a few years ago.

“I don’t see how you can see what I’ve seen and not love doing this,” she said. “I can be having the worst day ever, and I go up there and those patients make me realize it’s not so bad. Once you’ve been there, you get it.”

TJ Hutchings

In 2004, when Hutchings was 17 years old, he was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a bone cancer.

Tests revealed a baseball-sized tumor in his hip and spots on his lungs. Hutchings said he accepted his diagnosis with a positive attitude.

“I feel like my family took it worse,” he said. “A lot of things have come my way .... it could have been worse.”

Hutchings had hoped to earn a baseball scholarship, but he said those hopes were dashed when he had to take time off school his senior year.

He went through 42 weeks of chemotherapy and eight weeks of radiation. The radiation caused holes to form in his intestines, which led to three surgeries to repair the holes. He said he took the complications in stride.

“Don’t look at treatment as a burden, look at it as a gift,” he said.

Hutchings officially went into remission in July 2005, but couldn’t walk well and had to continue physical therapy through December of that year.

He now volunteers at the same place he received treatment, The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center.

Hutchings said he does it to show appreciation for the people who helped save his life and to show the patients they can get better.

Although he is in remission, Hutchings’ fight has continued.

Last March, he had a kidney removed due to complications of his cancer.

Hutchings said he has learned important life lessons from his cancer experiences.

“I wouldn’t change anything,” he said. “I get to live my life to the fullest. Some people that [live to] 100 don’t get that.”

Hutchings said he has started to appreciate the small things in life because he has realized they can be taken away at any moment.

“Small conversations with friends or spending time outside on a nice day .... you realize those things matter when they’re not there anymore.”

Danny O’Donnell

Unlike Wallace and Hutchings, O’Donnell was an OU student when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in July 2007, one month before his 22nd birthday.

“They told me you’re going to have to drop out of school; they wanted me to go home,” he said. “They said you’re going to be sick… you’re not going to be able to study or take care of yourself, but I said ‘I don’t think that’s going to happen.’”

Instead, O’Donnell enrolled in nine credit hours, soon increasing to the 12 required to be a full-time student. He also worked as a teaching assistant and maintained a 3.75 grade-point average while undergoing aggressive chemotherapy, he said.

“I just kept busy .... that was what got me through it, I always had something to do,” he said. “Granted, I was tired. Sometimes I’d be sitting there studying and just fall asleep, which kind of makes it hard.”

O’Donnell underwent two cycles of chemotherapy at Cancer Care Associates in Norman. He has been in remission since October.

His experiences have prompted him to also engage in cancer-related community service.

Last summer, he worked as a counselor at Camp Cavett, a summer camp at Lake Texoma for terminally ill children.

Wallace recruited him to volunteer for Relay for Life last year. This year, he serves as the event’s recruitment co-chairman.

He plans to graduate from OU in May and become a physician’s assistant.

He said students who think something is wrong should not delay seeing a doctor.

“Don’t be afraid to go to the doctor,” he said. “I only waited 11 days.... that’s why I’m as healthy as I am today.”