Maggie Bernard was always a healthy student. A member of the outdoor track and cross country teams, she was in the best shape of her life prior to her junior year at Clemson. But soon after reporting to campus for pre-season training in August 2008, a routine physical revealed a lump in her neck.

Bernard, a senior in Wildlife Fisheries and Biology, was alarmed when the athletic physician asked her to get further tests on a swollen lymph node. “I was scared because I knew something was wrong,” Bernard said. “I knew I didn’t have mono.”

At that point, her thoughts were on the upcoming cross country season. “I never thought anything was seriously wrong,” she said. “I know my family did; my family was really worried. I wasn’t expecting the worst.”

After a series of visits with numerous doctors, a round of MRIs and finally a biopsy, Bernard returned to the doctor’s office. “He called me back the next day and took me to the room very far in the back of the doctor’s office, which is never a good sign,” she said. “He came right out, sat down and said, ‘You have papillary carcinoma of the thyroid.’ I didn’t know much, but I know carcinoma means cancer.”

“It was completely shocking. First I just stopped breathing and I was like, ‘I feel like I’m going to throw up. I’m going to pass out.’ And then I thought, ‘I’m just going to cry.’”

Papillary carcinoma is the most common of four types of thyroid cancer, and is most prevalent in women and young people. Usually it spreads either to the patient’s lungs or bones. In Bernard’s case, it was in her lungs. Despite the shocking news, Bernard’s mother was relieved because she researched the cancer and knew what it could have been. “I probably got the best case scenario,” Bernard said.

Bernard’s friend and cross country teammate, senior Marketing major Lauren Klas, shared her initial lack of concern as well as her eventual shock at the news. “I still remember Maggie coming over to my house because she wanted to ‘talk to me about something,’” she said. “I knew she was having tests done because the doctors found a lump in her neck, but I never really thought it would be something as serious as cancer. We were in college, and things like that just don’t happen to someone who’s barely 20-years-old.”

Bernard and her parents were support systems for one another. “[My parents] were obviously very scared, but they were completely optimistic from the beginning,” she said. “I obviously cried for several days, but then I came to a point and was like, ‘Okay, I’m not crying anymore.’ And I told my mom, ‘You’re not allowed to cry around me anymore. I don’t want to see it.’ From then on, that was it. They were my rock through all of this.”

Klas agrees. “I knew she was more concerned with making sure I was okay with the news than she was about her diagnosis,” she said. “But that’s how Maggie has always been; she’s always been the one to look out for everyone else before she worries about herself.”

According to Bernard, the cancer grows very slowly. “[Doctors] think I probably had it for two years before I even found out about it,” she said. “It’s really weird, because you know something’s wrong, and you know something’s bad in your body and you want to get it out.”

Bernard’s doctor recommended immediate surgery and referred her to a top physician in the Charlotte area. Six days later, she met with him on her 20th birthday. Two days later, having never undergone surgery before, Bernard was wheeled into the operating room.

“You kind of expect the worst with surgeries,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to come out alive or not. When they’re slicing open your neck, it’s pretty major.”

When the surgery was completed, doctors had removed Bernard’s thyroid and 94 lymph nodes. The typical hospital stay for this kind of surgery is four days. Bernard was hospitalized for nine.

“Every day I expect them to tell me I’m going home and then I don’t get to go home,” she said. “Every day just got harder and harder, and my mom never left the hospital once.”

The surgery left a four-inch scar on Bernard’s neck and dots from the tubes used to drain fluid from the wound. She lost feeling in parts of her neck for six months and even after returning home had limited mobility in her upper body. She relied on her parents for many things.

During that time, Bernard lamented her dependence on others and even more her inability to temper her parents’ worries. “The worst thing is, every time my parents look at me, I can just see the fear in their eyes and it almost makes me feel guilty,” she said. “I know it’s not my fault they’re so scared for me, but it’s about me…I can’t help how I’m feeling, but I want to try to help how they’re feeling.”

On Sept. 15, against her doctor’s orders, Bernard returned to school. “My doctor definitely told me [I] should just take the semester off, drop out of school,” she said. “If I do that, I’m just going to sit at home every day and think about it. My whole take on it was, ‘I’m not going to let this change my life.’”

Getting back to school was difficult for Bernard, who suffered from fatigue and fell asleep in class often. She has to take a synthetic hormone every day for the rest of her life to replace her thyroid. “I didn’t have a thyroid anymore, but I had cancer in my neck and lungs, so I still had thyroid cells,” she said.

Bernard’s chief cancer-fighting medication, radioactive iodine, required her to stop taking her hormone for three weeks prior to each of her two treatments, which exacerbated her tiredness. After taking a radioactive pill at the hospital, she had to stay in isolation for three days. Her parents would place food at the bottom of the stairs for her.

On Nov. 1 of that same year, Bernard began running again. “Just barely running, like 10 minutes,” she said.

In January, she began training with the outdoor track team, running her first race in April, describing it as “not good… nowhere near the times I was before.”

Bernard trained over this past summer and participated in cross country but could never regain her original level of fitness, which contributed to her decision to forgo track season her senior year. Throughout it all, though, her teammates have been incredibly supportive.

“A bunch of them came to visit me in the hospital one day, which was a really nice surprise, because it’s a long trip for them,” she said. “They were really supportive when I came back and started training again and when I started running meets, because it was very frustrating and they just always encouraged me.”

Today, Bernard eagerly awaits her walk across the stage of Littlejohn Coliseum in May. She also waits with anxiety for her upcoming doctor’s appointment in the same month. “We’re hoping I’ll go to my appointment in May and I’ll be cancer-free,” she said. “The cancer’s now gone from my neck and lungs, and it hasn’t spread to my bones. We think this past treatment I’ve just had will take care of it.”

Theoretically, the cancer was removed along with Bernard’s thyroid. But, the ripple effects of the experience will not be so quick to subside. “I wouldn’t really say I’ve ever taken life for granted, but it really makes you just stop and think about all the small things in life,” Bernard said.

“Maggie’s battle with cancer has opened my eyes to the real world,” Klas said. “I’ve stopped living for tomorrow and I treasure every moment I have.”

Bernard says it’s helped her realize the important things in life. “It’s not just about the obstacles, it’s not just all about running; you need to go out and see your friends, see your family and keep them close to you,” she said. “I try not to look to the