Written by Brandy Centolanza —
Lizzie Powell isn’t the typical 21-year-old college junior, and she knows it. Powell, diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma on her 17th birthday, is entering her fourth year of remission.
Surviving her bout with cancer, Powell says, “I see the value in life more than most people my age. I see the preciousness of life, and cherish things more. I also know that even in the face of death, you can get through it, and there are always brighter days.”
Powell, a student at the College of William & Mary, discovered she was stricken with the disease just days after winning a state competition in pole vaulting. Her father, Dr. Robert Powell, the director of the emergency department at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond, Va., made the detection. At first, Powell felt sorry for herself. “I saw my life flash before my eyes, as cliché as it sounds,” Powell remembers. “There was a lot of fear of the unknown, about how long I was going to live, if I was going to live. I didn’t know if I was going to go to college, have a family, have a life.”
Unbeknownst to Powell, her mother sent an email to two-time Olympic champion pole vaulter Jenn Suhr. She opened up about her daughter’s condition to Suhr, who then surprised Powell with a phone call the day she began chemotherapy.
“For her to take the time out of her day to call me and lift my spirits meant the world to me,” Powell recalls. “It’s not every day you get a phone call from an Olympic medalist. She gave me great encouragement. After talking to her, I thought, ‘I can do this. I know I can pole vault again. I can get through this.’”
Thanks to the support of her family, friends, coaches and Suhr, Powell successfully underwent four cycles of chemotherapy. “There were two ways I could have looked at it,” she says. “I could dwell on the fact that I had this diagnosis and be negative, or get past it and see the positives. I was always taught that if you put your mind to it, you can overcome anything. I just viewed it as another hurdle or bar to jump. It was just another obstacle. It was just cancer. I’d get through it. I wouldn’t let it hinder my dreams.”
Now, as a cancer survivor, she hopes to inspire others going through the same ordeal.
“Before, I didn’t see myself as a role model, but just as someone going through cancer,” Powell says. “Then I started to realize that I could help people, and show kids with cancer and adults, too, that there is hope. I want to show them that they should always believe in themselves. That is honestly the key. You have to stay strong. You have to believe in yourself. You can never give up.”
She’s trying to take her own advice as she attempts to regain her stance in pole vaulting. Powell transferred to William & Mary from Virginia Tech this year with the hopes that the coaching staff would help her overcome her mental roadblocks with pole vaulting since recovering from cancer.
“A lot has happened in the last three years, and it’s been hard for me to get back into pole vaulting,” she says. “Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be in the Olympics, and that is still my dream now. My dream
is to get to the Olympic trials. And just like when I had the cancer, I’m never giving up on my dream.”