A 21-year-old TCU student is inspiring thousands of people nationwide with her message of strength, positivity and faith.

“I don’t think she realizes it, but I think she’s really inspiring a lot of people,” said Grace Snell, friend and roommate.

Snell described her as stubborn, Southern and sweet.

“She is like ‘yay big’ and wants a truck,” said Hannah James, friend and roommate.

Snell and Galen Storey were roommates in Colby Hall during their first year at TCU. They decided to live together again this school year with James and two other women, Snell said.

During the first two months of the fall semester, things were going as planned: the women moved into their house, classes were in session, Storey celebrated her 21st birthday and everyone seemed healthy.

But things changed after Storey’s trip to the doctor’s office.

The diagnosis

“Galen’s story,” as Storey likes to say, began after what was supposed to be a benign tumor removal surgery. The surgery turned out to be a lot more than people had expected, James said.

“She felt a mass…so she went in and got it checked out by doctors. And we were joking around about it. We called it our sixth roommate, because there are five of us,” James said.

But after the tumor removal surgery, the jokes stopped.

“The doctors came out and called her parents in, which gave us all a bad feeling…and they said it’s cancer. It was less than a one percent chance that it was [cancer] going in, so it was a big shock,” Snell said.

After the doctors told Storey she had cancer, she decided she was going to be strong.

“I just said OK, this is what I have been dealt, so this is what we’re going to do. For me, there was no other option to throw a petty party for myself, so I didn’t let anyone who came to see me get upset,” Storey said. “I think I cried once that day with my mom, but then I was like alright we’re over it, we’re going to go, we’re going to do it.”

Storey was diagnosed on Oct. 8 with stage three Rhabdomyosarcoma.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a type of cancerous tumor connected to soft tissue, such as muscles. Children, under the age of 10, account for two-thirds of cases.

It is typically categorized as a childhood cancer, but cases can be found in adults too, said Storey.

Storey is being treated at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth and MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

A Life Changing Experience

Since her diagnosis, Storey’s life has changed.

Storey had planned on going class, but decided, later, to take medical leave.

“I was going to try to go to class when I was first diagnosed, and then I got a call that I was going to need more extensive treatment because my cancer was worse than they thought it was,” Storey said.

The more extensive treatment entailed 42 weeks of chemo, nearly 10 weeks short of a year.

“The only people that I had experiences with chemo were people with breast cancer, and that’s eight, six weeks of chemo. So, that’s what I thought I was going to have,” Storey said.

Storey was looking at the academic building she was planning on going into for class that day with her mom, but decided that walking to and from class with cancer would be too hard on her body.

Storey said that she loses her breath when she talks in a large amount. This is one of the hardest things on Storey because a normal college student can go to parties and hang out with a big group of people, Storey said.

“There is a lot of things you need energy for, but you lose it from the chemo,” she said.

The chemo has not only decreased Storey’s energy level, but it has also caused her to lose her hair.

“After two weeks of chemo, I literally scratched the bottom of my head and a piece of my hair fell out and I was like well… it’s happening. I waited until I got out of the hospital, and I didn’t even wash my hair or anything and my mom bought a buzzer and we just buzzed it all off,” Storey said.

 

 

Storey said when she cut off her hair, she did multiple different hairstyles, including a Miley Cyrus inspired look.

Bright Outlook

Despite losing her hair, energy and ability to attend class, Storey remains positive.

“Because sometimes you have to look in the mirror and laugh…Funny things happen and you just have to laugh. One of my chemo meds gives me the hiccups, like what do you do? You just laugh,” Storey said.

Storey says that she has learned that it is important to have a sense of humor and to be thankful for what she has.

“When you are stripped bare, all you have let is your friends, your family and your faith, and you can just look around and see those three things and it makes you so thankful,” Storey said.

Storey’s mom moved to Fort Worth to be with her during treatment and Storey’s dad flies from Alabama to Fort Worth whenever he is not working. Storey says they are her biggest supporters.

Impact on others

Storey’s friends are also among her biggest supporters, she said.

To psychically show support for Storey, James and Snell got yellow bracelets made that say, “No one fights alone.”

“We got yellow ones for Galen because yellow is sarcoma. We ordered like 300 of them and handed them out to a bunch of people; everyone has been asking for them,” James said. “I see people I don’t even know wearing them.”

Storey’s outlook on life can be seen on her blog, which has been viewed more than 20 thousand times.

Even though she does not realize it, she is inspiring a lot of people, Snell said.

“I’m not that strong person that gets cancer that is super inspirational about the way she does it, but apparently I am because [tcu360] is asking to interview me and 20 thousand people have read my blog,” Storey said.

Storey said she cannot believe how many people have seen the blog because that amount people is bigger than the population size of her hometown in Scottsboro, Alabama.

Current and Future Plans

Though Storey has a many more weeks of treatments, James said Storey is “kicking cancer’s butt.”

“The cancer is gone. There was no evidence of cancer in my scans. We were all really excited; my mom cried, of course,” Storey said.

 

 

Storey’s friends were all excited to hear the good news too.

“I was in a car full of people and immediately started crying… To hear that it is actually working, and she is not doing this for nothing is the best feeling in the whole world,” Snell said.

Despite the news about her scans not showing signs of cancer, she will still be getting treatments until September 2015.

“It’s still a long journey and we still need to be praying and hoping for the best that it continues in this direction,” said Shannon Quinn, Storey’s friend.

Storey plans to return to TCU in the fall and continue in her early childhood education classes.

But, Storey will not be coming back to school alone. Her parents have agreed to buy her a dog for next semester.

“Puppy Storey is coming [fall of] 2015,” Storey said. She said she hopes it will be a mini Australian Shepard.