Meet Grace, 2025 Scholar
Thanks to a generous survivorship program grant from Hyundai Hope On Wheels, twenty-two survivors were welcomed into the 2025 Children’s Cancer Cause College Scholars Program, representing both organizations’ strong investment in survivors and belief in their bright futures.
Each of these students receive a financial scholarship to help with academic expenses, and each Scholar commits to undertaking a volunteer project of their choosing related to childhood cancer advocacy.
Grace’s Story
Shortly after her seventh birthday, Grace was diagnosed with Stage IV Lymphoblastic Lymphoma, T-cell, a rare form of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer.
“I was a very confused first grader, and I had no idea what cancer was or what it meant. I just knew that healing me actually caused me a lot of pain,” Grace told us. “Cancer is a nasty, terrible disease that no one – and certainly no child – should ever have to face.”
Grace would spend the next three and a half years on chemo, at one point taking up to 25 pills every day. She received a total of 33 spinal taps and spent a lot of time in the hospital. She lost her hair five times.
“My doctors gave me enough chemo to take me to the edge of death in an effort to heal me,” she says. “Physically and emotionally, I was drained during the first 30 months of treatment. I was home-schooled for first grade and most of second grade. I wasn’t well enough for most days for playdates, gymnastics, or ballet. Some days, it hurt just to walk to the bathroom in my home. There were a lot of days I was really, really sad.”
Then one day, Grace heard about two little girls who’d lost everything in a fire. She donated her new school clothes to the little girls. “When my mom told me about their happy reaction, I knew immediately that despite much I could no longer do, I could in fact make really sad kids happy.”
Inspired by the experience, Grace founded a nonprofit that, to date, has brought happiness to more than 33,000 children experiencing homelessness, living in foster care group homes, fighting critical illness, and facing food insecurity in five countries and six states.
Grace continues to be involved in her nonprofit. She hand-picked her successor to chair the all-youth board of advisors while she studies political science at Howard University. She also serves on her nonprofit's board of directors and leads its expansion efforts in Washington, DC, and Africa.
Grace’s Advocacy Project
Through her WeCancerve Movement, Grace is providing Comfort Kits for Children with Cancer in Ethiopia. These kits contain a TransFUNer Kit, a pair of pajamas, an activity kit and an at-home basic medical supplies kit. TransFUNer kits include assorted stickers, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and other craft supplies that children can use to decorate new pillowcases that cover their IV poles.
“The decorated pillowcases shield IV infusions including blood transfusions and chemotherapy medicine. These kits transform transfusions - which can be scary - into fun,” Grace explains. The first aid kits will help families address basic needs when their child returns to their village after or in-between treatments.
Grace’s supplies will go to the Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH, also known as Black Lion Hospital) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as part of her nonprofit's ongoing support to the Aslan Project.