Cancer survivor returns to DHS
When the lunch bell rings, sophomore Della Woods arrives on the DHS campus to attend her only two classes of the day. Friends who haven’t seen Woods since January are surprised to see the way she looks now. Her hair is much shorter than it used to be, and these days, her eyes almost always seem tired.
Chemotherapy is the culprit.
But despite her long, vicious struggle with intensive medication that sapped her strength, Woods’ desire to live is stronger than ever.
Della Woods is proud to say that she is a cancer survivor.
On Jan. 28, 2010, Woods was diagnosed with diffuse B cell lymphoma non-Hodgkin’s, a cancer that creates a tumor of lymphoid cells in the lymphatic system. Woods was sitting on the hospital bed with her parents when her surgeon came in and calmly told her that she had cancer. This, the surgeon explained, was why she was becoming tired so easily after playing soccer.
The first person Woods told was her closest friend, Megan Whitworth. Whitworth remembers sitting on her couch talking on the phone with Woods that very day. Whitworth’s mom came in and barked at her for wasting precious phone minutes, and that was when Whitworth turned away from the phone and slowly said, “Mom…Della has cancer.”
Della. Has. Cancer. Those three words changed everything. That was the end of soccer for Woods. She now had to spend months at the hospital undergoing chemotherapy, and feared that she might have to repeat the ninth grade.
Once she began her treatment, Woods spent entire days lying in her hospital bed. “Chemo made me feel like I had a bad flu all the time,” Woods said. “But my friends were always telling me I’d make it through this. And my mom was always in the hospital with me, even overnight for a week, never leaving me.”
“It was astonishing to see how much pain [our family] could take, to see someone we love go through cancer,” said Bea Woods, Della’s older sister and a 2010 DHS graduate. “If I were her, I definitely could not have been as brave…”
It took bravery for Woods to accept her situation and separate herself from school and soccer. “Soccer is a team sport, and Della is a team player,” said sophomore Maddy Purves, the keeper on Woods’ team. “When we first found she was diagnosed with cancer, [we felt] a sense of emptiness and guilt that we were still playing while she couldn’t. We played each game for her.”
“What kept me going strong was thinking about what my life would be like after cancer,” Woods said. “I was scared, but I had this mental attitude…that cancer wouldn’t break me.”
Cancer was not strong enough to pierce through Woods’ steel. On Sept. 13th, at 8:19 p.m., Woods updated her status on Facebook to read: “CT scan results are clear! Cancer messed with the wrong bitch!” This status update received 23 comments and 83 “likes” from her friends and supporters.
“In certain lymphomas, the cure rate is high if [diagnosed] in the early stage,” said Dr. Jyoti Mayadev, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the UC Davis School of Medicine. Luckily, Woods received an early diagnosis and her preemptive chemotherapy treatment was able to eradicate the cancerous cells in her body.
“I look up to Della because of all she had to go through,” said sophomore Kylie Tierney, who regularly visited Della in the hospital. “She is one of the strongest people I know.”
To her relief, Woods was not required to repeat the ninth grade and is now taking two classes as a sophomore at DHS: Spanish and biology. Her other coursework is supplied by Davis School for Independent Study. “It’s been amazing to see her here almost every day,” Spanish teacher Brittany Deibert said. “Della’s one of those people who lights up the whole class.”
Recently, Woods has been cleared by her doctor to play soccer again. “She comes to every game and practice she can,” Purves said. “I love her being back on the field!”
“Life has gone back to normal,” Woods said, looking back on a year of hardship that tested her strength. “It is all over…I can move on and look back on cancer as a positive experience in my life that changed me for the better.”
