Marquette University student, inspired by her own nurses in cancer battle, pursues nursing degree

Marquette University freshman Maya Keesey will always remember her last round of chemotherapy.

And the huge surprise party her family threw her, and the overwhelming sense of joy and relief she felt.

“I feel like most 13-year-olds haven’t had an experience like that where you’re just so genuinely happy,” she said. “You actually made it, even after all those days where you didn’t think you would.”

Keesey had looked forward to that day. To get through the cancer treatments, she planned things, plotting out the remaining appointments on her calendar, thinking about the future.

Her 27-month middle-school bout with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, it would turn out, set her professional future into motion, too. Inspired by the compassionate nurses she had, Keesey has enrolled direct-admit into Marquette’s nursing school.

She’s one of four college students in Wisconsin who received last year’s Northwestern Mutual scholarship for childhood cancer survivors and their siblings. The fund allowed Keesey, of McHenry, Illinois, to attend Marquette after her family took on the costly burden of paying for cancer treatment.

“The financial impact of trying to find a cure for your kid can be devastating,” said Eric Christophersen, president of the Northwestern Mutual Foundation, which runs the scholarship program.

Childhood cancer affects the whole family, he said, and a diagnosis can often take away the chance for survivors and their siblings to go to college.

The scholarship — in its second year — awards 25 survivors and 10 siblings $5,000, renewable once. The deadline for next year is Jan. 30, and hundreds of students across the country have applied.

The students who have received the scholarship “tend to be wise beyond their years” and often go into the medical field, Christophersen said.

“After what they’ve gone through, they just want to make sure that nobody else has to go through the same thing,” he said.

That’s what has motivated Keesey to pursue nursing. As a kid, she’d seen herself in the fashion industry, not in scrubs. But cancer, and her own nurses, changed that.

“I really knew I wanted to work with kids and give back some way,” she said. “I’ve been proven this is definitely what I’m meant to do.”

On Friday, Keesey will celebrate the five-year anniversary of that last dose of chemo. She’s become an advocate for childhood cancer funding, speaking at big galas and raising money.

“That was just a huge thing for me — making people understand why it needs to be funded … and just how it changes your life,” she said. 

“And how, if we can strive towards a cure, then it won’t have to change so many lives.”

Applications for the Northwestern Mutual scholarship for childhood cancer survivors are due at 3 p.m. Jan 30. Go to foundation.northwesternmutual.com/scholarships to find both the survivor and the sibling applications.

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.