Lucy Buschur
2026 Scholarship Winner
Ohio University

You never know when your life is going to change and usually you don’t even realize until after the fact. In 2014, my life changed forever. My parents brought my two brothers and me into the living room to tell us something important. “Your mom has breast cancer.” At six years old, I never expected it to be news like that. I remember hearing words like sickness, doctors, and hospitals, but there was one word I did not quite understand: cancer. What was cancer? How do you get it? When would my mom get better? I was so confused.

As time passed, I began to understand the severity of the situation. My mom seemed to get sicker and sicker as treatments continued. The medicine that was supposed to help, why did it make her feel worse? At this point I could barely even recognized my mom, all I saw was a fragile and exhausted person nothing like the playful energetic mom I had. During that time, almost every day there was a casserole waiting on our doorstep which was more than nice and very helpful, but six year old me was tired of casserole.

For a really long time everything felt confusing, but later that year my family was given the opportunity to go to Oak Island North Carolina with Little Pink. For the first time in a long time my family felt normal again. To be surrounded by other families that knew what we had been through and understood my mom’s situation made everything better just to know we weren’t alone. This trip gave my family and especially my mom something we had been missing for a while, time without worry. I was able to laugh, play, and just be a kid again, and my parents could finally relax and share their experience with people who really understood. The trip made us remember that even in the middle of something as scary and difficult as cancer there is still hope.

Looking back, this experience has changed the way I see the world. Watching my mom beat cancer and seeing all the support she was given was so powerful. The retreat with Little Pink will be forever something I carry with me and as I go on to college and build a future where I can hopefully help others the way my family was helped. I want to not only achieve my own goals but give back to the community and give hope to others.