Vania Q. Says When She Rang the Chime “It Was a Celebration of Life”
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A high school student at Jacksonville’s Douglas Anderson School for the Arts shares her positive take on being treated for a brain tumor and her plans for the future.
Speaker Rich Jones:
We leave you with good news on a Friday morning, our weekly chime story celebrating 20 years of saving lives. Vania Quiroz is a senior at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and her life changed in October 2024.
Speaker Vania Quiroz:
I had a seizure Saturday morning and they took me to Mayo Clinic and we didn't know quite yet what was going on in the emergency room. So the next day they took me to the neurology wing and they told me I had a tumor on my right hemisphere in the back where my motor functions are, and it was about the size of a ping pong ball.
Speaker Rich Jones:
It was astroblastoma, a rare malignant pediatric tumor. Doctors wanted to use proton radiation therapy to target small areas of her brain. So she started treatment at UF Health Proton Therapy Institute that December at the age of 17. 31 days of treatment with a few off days around the holidays, and she was able to manage all of it around her school schedule.
Speaker Vania Quiroz:
I remember my grades tanked because I was just so tired and because I had missed like two months of school. So I missed all of October and all like most of November.
Speaker Rich Jones
Ahead of her last treatment, Vani tells me she was feeling sad because of the bond that she had developed.
Speaker Vania Quiroz
I actually baked cupcakes and I planned for like three days prior my chime ceremony because I saw that everyone was always so like sad when they rang the chime. [Chime ringing sound] So I wanted to give it like a more positive connotation for me. So where it was like a celebration of life rather than just like a, oh, thank God we're done.
Speaker Rich Jones
Despite some setbacks, she was able to grind away and is on track to graduate this month. Vani wants to study radiology at FSCJ.
Speaker Vania Quiroz
I was like, hey, how much do you guys? get paid per year. I know, like, that's not a question to be asked, but they're like, Oh yeah, we make quite a bit of money. And I said, “Well, could I do this? And they said, Yeah.
Speaker Rich Jones:
She hopes one day to join the team of radiologists at the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute.
Speaker Vania Quiroz
So I will forever associate proton therapy with life rather than like a pain.
Speaker Rich Jones
Rich Jones, 104.5 WOKV.
