Editor, Gazette-Journal:

My name is Brielle Hicks, but most people call me Brie. A few days after Christmas when I was 4½ years old my family noticed a suspicious lump on my back. My pediatrician recommended that I go to CHKD for a CT scan and testing, which showed an inoperable cancerous tumor located inside my chest wall. The tumor was pressing against my lungs, spine, and ribs. I was admitted to the CHKD’s Oncology floor that very same day. Doctors explained to me and my family that I had a childhood cancer called “Ewing Sarcoma,” a cancer of the soft tissue and bones. I didn’t know what all that meant—I just knew that I was very sick and that everything in my life suddenly changed! I couldn’t go to school, gymnastics, or have my friends over to play.

I spent the next 14 months away from home, practically living on the hospital’s Oncology floor. I underwent many surgeries, many rounds of chemotherapy, and 33 radiation treatments. I ...