2021-Annual-Report-FINAL-Single-Pages - Flipbook - Page 50
Savanna’s
Story
Savanna was 17 years old when she
was diagnosed with cancer.
She had her thyroid removed, earned her
bachelor’s degree and felt perfectly fine for
several years.
Then in 2016, Savanna was accepted
into Vanderbilt’s Physics and Astronomy
Ph.D. program. Two weeks before she
was scheduled to move to Nashville from
her home in Pittsburgh, doctors found
metastases in both of her lungs.
“It was a major decision to separate
geographically from my family, especially
once the recurrence was on the table,”
she says. “Moving here was kind of a big
question mark. Do I do it? Do I not? But
I did. In a lot of ways, I think that was
definitely the best decision because it
brought me to people like the folks
at Gilda’s.”
Gilda’s Club, a United Way partner agency,
provides support to anyone who has been
impacted by cancer—at no cost.
Gilda’s is less than a mile from Vanderbilt
and provided Savanna some much-needed
respite as she battled cancer while earning
her Ph.D. But she started off with Gilda’s
just thinking she’d volunteer.
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