Sheradia Kicks Cancer’s Butt — With Kindness
One Teen Girl’s Selfless Make-a-Wish Request
By Mae Velasco, HeroFuel® Reporter
When asked to describe herself, 15-year-old Sheradia Linton answered with a timid laugh.
“I don’t know. I can’t think of anything,” she said, a little embarrassed but mostly happy. “I’m sorry. Kind of quiet and shy?”
Although soft-spoken and sweet, she is full of character, and her drive, determination and generosity come across loud and clear.
It’s obvious Sheradia is strong. After all, she is a cancer survivor. But what surprised the people around her the most was her act of selflessness.
When she’s not hanging out with friends or playing piano (her favorite song is “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri), this Hazre High School sophomore flies halfway across the world to volunteer at a special-needs, Indian orphanage.
Yeah, you know, your typical teenage stuff.
Rather than using her Make-A-Wish request to meet a celebrity, or bring her family to Walt Disney World, she used her wish of a lifetime to help others.
Sheradia remembers the day her world got flipped upside down.
It was last year, when a strange lump began growing at the side of her neck, and along with it, growing uncertainty.
“The day was actually at band camp. My Dad came and picked me up early, and he said we had something to talk about,” she said. “So, we went to the park with my Mom. And they told me.”
The doctors had confirmed she had Burkitt’s lymphoma, a form of non-Hodgkin’s that begins in immune cells, and associated with the fastest-growing human tumor, which can double in size within 24 hours.
“They told me what it would all entail and what they knew about it, and what we had to do. I’m pretty sure I had to go to the hospital after that and get more tests done,” she said.
But cancer was no match for Sheradia. With her father, mother, sister and loved ones by her side, she kicked the disease to the curb, her family sharing her progress on the Facebook page “Sheradia is Kickin Cancers Butt.”
When she arrived at the hospital in Seattle, three different doctors told her she would be bedridden for at least six months. Maybe even a year. They told her family that time to treatment length can be added, but never shortened. In four months, she was home before Christmas.
Beating cancer was a dream, but she had one more for the books.
“Well, I’ve always wanted to go to India to see what it was like there,” Sheradia said, almost bashful as she admitted the reason why. “What set my heart on it was a summer I watched a movie. ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ It inspired me to go. It got me interested.”
She didn’t think she’d ever get the chance to experience it for herself. It almost didn’t cross her mind, even when the Make-A-Wish Foundation approached her.
“At first, I didn’t know what to do. It took me quite a while to figure out what I wanted,” she said.
She entertained the idea of learning how to surf with Bethany Hamilton, but being a cancer survivor gave her a second gift at life. And as someone who has always been passionate about helping others, as someone aspiring to be a nurse when she grows up, she knew she could do more than that.
And being able to volunteer to help children in poverty, and to do so in a country she always found beautiful?
“I had a few choices, and narrowed it down and down, and in the end, that was my wish,” Sheradia said.
ln November, Sheradia and her family hopped on a 20-hour flight to Mumbai, where they her family spent about two weeks working with students at Save the Children India, an organization working towards bettering the lives of children through education, disaster relief and health welfare.
Sheradia didn’t just bring elbow grease along with her luggage. Her family also donated school supplies, modeling clay and $3,000 they raised themselves.
Her days were filled with working on projects with the children, getting to know their stories, and eating lunches with them. In the afternoons she had idle time to do some light touring of the land that captured her heart.
“We were mostly in the art room there,” she said, excited about a particular project. “One time we made a kind of like a papier-mâché turtle.”
But what was the highlight of her trip?
“I think my favorite was when they had a Sports Day,” Sheradia said, referring to when all the local special-needs schools came together for an inspiring event. “A special olympics of sorts, with track and field. We were there cheering them on.”
During her time in India, Sheradia wasn’t the only one making a difference. The people she met touched her life as well. From the girls from Save Our Sisters, who were rescued from human trafficking, to the students she sat next to each day at lunch, each smiling face was another piece to a puzzle within her that she never knew was missing.
There was another person who inspired her every day, though.
“If I had to pick, it was the art teacher there. He used to to go to the school there. He’s also deaf and mute. He went to the school when he was a child, and the school told him he could be the art teacher,” Sheradia said, humbled by his passion and his ability to convey the message of emotion without words.
It may have only been a few weeks for Sheradia, but she knows the impact it left on her heart will last forever.
“It inspired me to go back. I’d like to be a nurse and go back there,” she vowed.
Want to learn more about this fighter who kicked butt with kindness? Watch this video below:
