{"id":302142,"date":"2026-05-20T23:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/302142\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T23:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:47:08","slug":"texas-teen-survives-cancer-celebrates-high-school-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/302142\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas teen survives cancer, celebrates high school graduation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The milestone of reaching high school graduation carries a deeper meaning for a Texas teen who walked the stage after facing four separate cancer diagnoses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Makayla Nelson\u2019s first cancer diagnosis was at age 11. Stomach pain led Nelson, who was a sixth grader at the time, to the hospital, where she learned she had kidney cancer and needed to have a kidney removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve had cancer, but cancer is not me,\u201d Nelson told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiiitv.com\/article\/news\/nation-world\/texas-teen-high-school-graduation-after-surviving-cancer-four-times\/507-a219c6f2-4166-4173-a284-be50a33b36dd\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyler news station KTRK<\/a>, who first reported the story. \u201cGod has me here for a reason.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since then, she has dealt with recurrences in her lungs and brain, and has had to undergo surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and stem cell transplants.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Her mother, Sherree Nelson, said her daughter hoped that she would make it to middle school graduation. Now, she\u2019s a Tyler High School graduate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou want your children to achieve all their dreams and goals,\u201d Sherree Nelson said. \u201cBut when this constant reminder keeps getting thrown in, it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Makayla\u00a0is currently in treatment after being diagnosed with a brain tumor last month. She is waiting to decide the next steps, but said that faith, family and purpose is what inspires her to carry on.<\/p>\n<p>While Makayla\u00a0said it is sometimes hard to remain optimistic, she\u2019s doing what she can to stay positive. Whatever her doctors say is best, she said, she will do.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite the ongoing struggle, Makayla said she felt \u201cin awe\u201d that she made it to her high school graduation. Now, she&#8217;s preparing to attend University of Texas at Tyler, where shes plans to study pediatric oncology nursing. It&#8217;s an educational path driven by her own experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew that there was something bigger ahead of me,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIt\u2019s just something in me that drives determination to be something bigger\u00a0\u2014 because I\u2019m here for a reason.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The milestone of reaching high school graduation carries a deeper meaning for a Texas teen who walked the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-302142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}