“I was diagnosed with high-grade osteosarcoma when I was 18, at the beginning of my senior year of high school in 2019. The diagnosis came at Oakland Children’s Hospital in California after I went to the emergency department for weeks of constant knee pain that I had written off as a sports injury. An X-ray revealed a tumor in my right knee, and within days I had a confirmational bone biopsy and began treatment.
Treatment lasted about nine months and included a rotating schedule of high-dose methotrexate, cisplatin, and doxorubicin every three weeks. Halfway through, I underwent limb-salvage surgery at UCSF Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. Surgeons removed my distal femur and the head of my tibia, replacing them with the metal hardware I still have today. That surgery was a turning point—not just physically, but also in how I began to think about the future.
Just days before my diagnosis, I had actually been preparing to attend Cal State Long Beach in the fall to play rugby, which was my way of getting into their nursing program. But the diagnosis and my limb-salvage surgery changed all of that. The implant in my leg wasn’t built to withstand the impact of rugby, so I had to withdraw my enrollment and reimagine my path forward.
I began looking for nursing programs closer to home, still wanting to stay on the West Coast and close to my family and treatment team. I also knew I wanted a program connected to a cancer hospital, because that was the setting where I felt I could make the greatest impact. That’s when I discovered the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City. I had heard of it in passing during treatment, and when I learned that the University of Utah’s College of Nursing was right there, everything seemed to fall into place.
Today, I’m an operating room nurse at the Huntsman. Every day, I try to connect with each patient I encounter in a way that feels genuine and personal. Having gone through a major cancer surgery myself, I can often anticipate some of the fears and emotions patients might be experiencing before their own procedures. It gives me a perspective I carry into each interaction, and I hope it allows my patients to feel understood in a unique way.
Being a cancer survivor has shaped not only my career but also my outlook on life. Cancer is incredibly isolating—you’re surrounded by an amazing care team and by loved ones who want the best for you, but it’s still easy to feel like you’re the only one going through it. And in some ways, that’s true. Nobody else receives the exact same chemotherapy, the same surgeries, or the same side effects. But what I’ve learned is that even though the fight feels like a battle you have to fight alone, it’s actually carried by the community around you.
That’s a lesson I didn’t fully embrace at first. I tried to take on too much by myself and, in the long run, it cost me emotionally and mentally after treatment. My biggest advice to others—patients and survivors alike—is to let people in. Accept the help, the comfort, and the support being offered. Cancer isn’t a battle fought in isolation; it takes a whole community to carry someone through it. And when you allow that community to surround you, the journey becomes just a little bit lighter. ”
—Anthony Bradley, RN, operating room nurse, Huntsman Cancer Institute
To read more about Anthony Bradley and his experiences, click here.