Teen Most cancers Survivor Weeks Away from Marine Corps Bootcamp (Unique)

Ever since she was a younger lady, Britney Moyeda had her sights set on becoming a member of the Marine Corps. Now, years after surviving most cancers, she’s simply weeks away from beginning bootcamp.

“I’m very excited,” Moyeda, now 18, tells PEOPLE. “It’s one thing to be happy with – as a result of I can truly show to different children that had most cancers that they will do no matter they need in life and nothing can cease them.”

When Moyeda was in 5^th grade, she noticed a classmate’s father at commencement in his Marine Corps uniform. “I believed that was actually cool,” she says. She determined then that she finally needed to enlist.

However a 12 months later, when she was 12, Moyeda acquired sick.

She remembers taking a nap after faculty, and when she wakened, she couldn’t stand. “I fell,” she says. “Half of my physique wasn’t working.”

She was identified with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on Might 25, 2018.

“After they first advised me I had most cancers, I cried. After which I advised my mother every thing was gong to be high-quality,” she says. “I knew it was going to be high-quality – I simply felt it. I wasn’t scared.”

Britney went by means of 15 cycles of chemotherapy and 11 completely different drugs, and a number of blood transfusions. After years of therapy, she rang the bell being declared cancer-free at Texas Youngsters’s Hospital on September 7, 2020.

She was additionally nonetheless decided to turn out to be a Marine.

“I believe that is actually nice, that she’s been by means of every thing that she’s been by means of together with her most cancers therapy and has been in a position to make it by means of that and deal with a long-term objective like becoming a member of the Marines and serving our nation,” says Dr. Tim Porea, Texas Youngsters’s Hospital pediatric oncologist and retired U.S. Navy Captain.

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However first, Texas Youngsters’s needed to ship her medical information to recruiters.

“You need to have seen, it was like a thick guide of paperwork that I needed to disclose to the Marines. It was like 1,000, nearly 2,000 pages of paperwork for my most cancers remedies,” says Moyeda.

When it got here time to attend bodily coaching periods, Moyeda confirmed up and did extra — and labored tougher — than the others.

“In the event that they wanted one thing I might robotically go get no matter they wanted as quick as I might,” she says. “I put in further effort they usually noticed the hassle that I needed to hitch.”

Finally, she shares that recruiters, her sergeant and her gunny sergeant labored to assist her meet her dream. “They didn’t cease till they acquired me to it,” she provides.

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Nonetheless, as she ready to graduate from Angleton Excessive College on Might 24, 2024, Moyeda made positive she had some choices “simply in case I didn’t make it into the Marine Corps.”

As a back-up plan, the teenager — who can be part of Texas Youngsters’s Most cancers and Hematology Middle’s Lengthy-Time period Survivor Program — earned certificates in welding, floral design, culinary arts and earned a CNA certificates.

Thankfully, after spending the summer time in Mexico visiting household, Moyeda is ready to go away for bootcamp on Aug. 26.

“I’m a little bit scared, I’m a little bit excited,” Moyeda tells PEOPLE. “I’m a little bit little bit of every thing.”

However most significantly, she’s able to face no matter life has in retailer for her — and she or he needs different children who’ve gone by means of most cancers to really feel the identical. She says, “Life doesn’t finish once they inform you, ‘You could have most cancers,’ it retains on going.”