While her friends were going to cheer practice and preparing for their SATs, Miles Reyes was not even sure if she was going to live past graduation.
As a 16-year-old high school junior in Las Vegas, Reyes learned she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer of the lymphatic system.
Now, an incoming first-year biochemistry student at UCLA, Reyes has been in remission for a year and a half. She said her experience battling the life-threatening illness reaffirmed her goal of becoming a doctor.
She is set on using her eventual UCLA degree to give back to the community that helped her survive by becoming a doctor and also doing medical research.
“I love how dedicated (the doctors) are, they take personal time to help one single person. I want to give back to that community,” Reyes said.
In 2011 and 2012, Reyes was confined to her bed for five months. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments took the place of choir practice and cheer meets.
“I felt out of place and I didn’t know what to do with all the time that I had. It was a complete change; I was lost and I was pretty depressed,” she said.
During Reyes’ cancer treatment, she lost her hair and gained weight from taking steroids. She underwent surgery, received three shots a week and took eight pills a day, Reyes said.
While going through treatment, Reyes started questioning her outlook on life, she said.
“Is this how I want to spend the last days of my life, moping around?” Reyes remembers asking herself. “Or do I want to be hopeful and think what will happen in my life after this?”
To keep on track for graduation, Reyes had to take online summer school courses. Even after returning to school, she couldn’t walk across her high school campus without being out of breath.
“I was frustrated with myself,” Reyes said. “It is something simple, but I couldn’t do it.”
Watching her daughter suffer took a toll on Louves Reyes, Miles’ mother.
“It is the worst experience I have ever had. It was heartbreaking,” Reyes said.
Reyes said she thinks finding out one’s child has cancer is one of the hardest things a parent can go through.
“When I see her suffering I don’t want to be away from her,” she said through tears.
Miles Reyes said she thinks her cancer treatments made her a stronger person, even though they were painful.
“It has made me more of an optimistic, driven person. I already know what it is like to be at my very lowest and feel isolated,” she said. “I don’t ever want to be at that place again.”
Reyes received support from her friends while in treatment, she said.
“Her cancer made our relationship stronger,” said Brittany Lam, a friend of Reyes who will also be attending UCLA in the fall as a first-year biology student.
Reyes and Lam would go out to eat, watch movies and just spend time with each other during those days when Reyes had breaks between treatments, Lam said.
Reyes’ parents could not afford psychological therapy for her while she underwent treatment, so the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation, located in Las Vegas, provided her with free therapy for seven months.
The foundation tutored Reyes in subjects she needed help with after missing so much school, she said.
To give back, Reyes started volunteering for the foundation a month after her last cancer treatment. She continues to volunteer once every month to help plan events and give inspirational talks to cancer patients.
Reyes said she was shocked when she found out she was accepted to UCLA and received multiple scholarships to attend.
Reyes said she has always wanted to be a doctor and plans to pursue medical school.
“The treatment showed me how much I enjoy the presence of doctors and nurses,” Reyes said. “I love that environment.”
Her cancer can still come back, so Reyes has to receive checkups and body scans every three months.
She also has scars left from her cancer treatment – one on her ribcage, three on her back and one on her collarbone.
After going through five months of painful treatment and receiving scars that probably will never heal, Reyes said she is looking forward to attending UCLA in the fall.
“I don’t know what to expect at UCLA. I hear college is great,” Reyes said. “I am excited to be there and just live my life.”