A 23-year-old NBC news anchor received the words that everyone fears, “you have cancer”.
Boston Globe Media Partners reported the experience that young Natasha Verma faced upon her diagnosis. While it’s never easy to hear a young girl being diagnosed with cancer, we are glad to report she is in remission and getting back on track.
Natasha first noticed something was wrong when she had a lump on her collarbone. Yet, being an active person always working out, she just thought it was related to a muscle strain of sorts. Once that lump turned into a shooting pain down her arm, then she realized maybe it was something else. She quickly visited the doctor and after a quick assessment, the doctor told her she was young and healthy and sent her home. Little did they know at the time, they were very wrong.
Not too long after the appointment, Natasha was sent to the emergency room with a tightening of her chest. The doctor there, once again, explained she was young and healthy and had nothing to worry about. Yet, when he performed the PET scan, it lit up. Natasha was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin Lymphoma and would have to undergo intense chemotherapy for a good 6-months. To learn more about this cancer, click here.
Going through chemo was a tough time for Natasha. Not only was it very physically painful, it was difficult for her to be away from work for that long and she feared losing her hair. When dealing with cancer, these things are often unavoidable. Yet, Natasha kept her head high and came out from this experience better than ever.
Natasha ended up losing her hair, but quickly learned that wearing a wig with a baseball cap on top was both convenient and cute, whereas other wigs involved too much prep time and didn’t always look natural. With this brilliant idea, she began to start a non-profit organization, the Verma Foundation, that provided cancer patients with these types of wigs called, “Put a Cap on Cancer”. They were a total hit.
Natasha anticipates being back on the air come February. She’s expressed how she’s a changed young woman and actually thinks that cancer was the best thing that could happen to her. She now has her priorities right and her focus in the right place. Natasha is an inspiration to all! We wish her the warmest anchoring return!
