Laurel Simer: 20+ Years with DIPG

Childhood Cancer Talk Radio Podcasts

For this special edition of Childhood Cancer Talk Radio, our guest is a childhood cancer survivor of a diagnosis which, statistically speaking, takes most every life afflicted. Numbers and statistics guide our perspective when we’re in uncertain territory. Those who do survive against unbelievable odds bring us all hope, traversing the gauntlet of doubt, cynicism, and sometimes ostracization. More often than not, they tend to keep a low-profile rather than create controversy, and can be difficult to find--even when they would like to share their story to a larger audience. Laurel Simer, joining us from Utica New York, is originally from Minnesota. Now in her early 30s, she’s been an athlete all of her young life; she played soccer, lacrosse and also hockey, which brought her to Utica originally, to play for Utica College where she now works for the sports division leading the PR department. She's been surviving a deadly childhood brain cancer since she was 10 years old, DIPG, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. And for a good amount of that time, she herself had no idea about the true nature of her affliction.