Fighting Cancer While Reaching for the Stars: Zariea’s Story of Hope
August 21, 2025
In 2023, Zariea suffered a concussion when she was elbowed in the head during a high school basketball practice. When her severe headaches, loss of peripheral vision, and sleepiness got increasingly worse over the next several days, Zariea’s mom, Donisha, decided to bring her to Children’s Hospital Colorado. An MRI revealed that Zariea’s symptoms were not just due to her concussion; she had a malignant tumor on the right side of her brain, called a low-grade pontine glioma. Here, Zariea shares story in her own words.
When my mom and I found out I had a brain tumor, we were both devastated. But my mom said that my getting a concussion was a blessing in disguise, since that’s how we discovered my cancer. I couldn’t have brain surgery to remove my tumor, because it would be too risky, so I started doing chemotherapy, getting infusions at Children’s Colorado, Colorado Springs.
I went through 12 rounds of chemotherapy treatment and tried to keep a positive attitude, staying focused on all that I want to accomplish in high school and beyond. After a year of chemotherapy, which often made me weak and nauseous, I was able to ring the Balloon Bell to mark the end of my treatment and celebrate all that I had been through.
Although my tumor was stable for many months, it recently started to grow, so I began treatment again. This time around, I decided to take an oral chemotherapy pill rather than get chemotherapy infusions, so that I could continue to pursue all my big hopes and dreams for the future as I underwent my second round of therapy for my brain tumor.
I am now 17 years old and a senior at Harrison High School in Colorado Springs, where I will graduate with my associate’s degree. I play high school volleyball and basketball, and I love giving back to my community as a volunteer and school leader. I am a Yale University Global Scholar, serve on my school’s student council, and am a member of the National Junior Honor Society. I am also an intern through the Children’s Hospital Colorado Medical Career Collaborative (MC2) Program, a health careers pathway program for high school students.
After high school, my plan is to attend Howard University and pursue nursing school to become a traveling nurse. With all that I do in and out of school, my health and God come first before everything.
Thankfully, being on oral chemotherapy has opened more opportunities for me, while also allowing me to be a somewhat regular teenager. I am grateful to my team at Children’s Colorado, my family, friends, school district – and donors like you – for making all of this possible.
Zariea, Children’s Hospital Colorado Patient Ambassador