Young Soccer Player Wins Ovarian Cancer Battle

20-year-old college student Trina never thought she would have to go through what she did. An athlete and cheerful young woman with many hopes and dreams for the future, cancer was the last thing she expected to befall her amidst the soccer practices and midterm exams.

It was 3 years into her college education when she was first diagnosed with germ cell ovarian cancer. She would never have thought she would need the love and support of her teammates and college community for such a grave circumstance of ovarian cancer.

Trina chose her college because of the community feel

Trina shares that she had always wanted to go to Gustavus Adolphus for college. Both of her older siblings had gone there before her, and so she was already in love with the school before she even began considering other ones. She was ecstatic to start her freshman year three years ago, and she also became a part of their soccer team. What really set Gustavus apart for Trina was the community feel that she got from the campus. Everyone was so amazing and supportive of each other - that's the kind of experience that Trina was looking for.

Turns out that community support was just what she needed when received some life-changing, devastating news one summer.

Trina would never have imagined how important this community support was going to turn out to be. Just three years into her education at Gustavus, she was diagnosed with cancer. Over the summer, they did a scan at the hospital and found a large tumor on her ovary.

Trina got her care mostly at a children's hospital, even though she was a grown woman at 20 years old.

Rather than going to the general hospital, Trina went to Children's Minnesota for all her treatments. Even though she was 20 years old and definitely legally an adult, it turns out that getting her care at a pediatric institution would be the best option for her. The type of ovarian cancer she had was called germ cell ovarian cancer. It's actually a pediatric type of cancer best treated at a children's hospital.

One of the biggest draws about going to a children's hospital was also their emphasis on preserving her ability to be a mom. Trina had always dreamed of being a mom, and one of the first things you worry about with ovarian cancer is that you may lose your ability to get pregnant and have a child. A lot of the time, the majority of ovarian cancer types affect women are older than child-bearing age, so fertility prevention isn't really a top priority for physicians who specialize in treating these older patients. However, at the Children's hospital, preserving fertility is a common theme since many of the young patients are still hoping to start their own families some day.

Read on to learn more about Trina's inspirational story.

Photo credit: Children's Minnesota