My Cancer Journey from A-Z
Through a child’s eyes: a story of inspiration, courage, and hope in the face of cancer.
Emerson Hoogendoorn was diagnosed with cancer at the age of six. For a school
project in fourth grade, she wrote an ABC book about her experiences at Mott’s
Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Helen DeVos Children’s
Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Emerson thought it would be cool to turn her
school project into a published book. Her teacher, Ms. Kovacs, helped make her
dream a reality.
When Emerson turned 11, her disease returned. In July 2024, Emerson lost
her battle with cancer.
This book is her story.
I'm Emerson the Brave. . .
. . .but I wasn’t always known as that. My name is Emerson Hoogendoorn. I am 12 years old and I was diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of 6 when I had just finished kindergarten. I had to do many hard and challenging things and I wanted to show kids that it can be scary but you can do it because I did. In fourth grade, we did a project and wrote ABC books. We all picked a topic and wrote a full cover-to-cover ABC book and mine was things in the
hospital. I told my teacher Ms. Kovacs that I thought it would be cool to make my little 4th grade project into a real book. I could use it to help kids with cancer and also to make money for my charity.
This book is about my journey with cancer and the hard yet fun and exciting experiences that I’ve had through it. I wrote this book hoping to inspire kids to be BRAVE and to inform all the kids and even adults how things that happen in the hospital aren’t always scary.
Donate to the Cause
All proceeds from this book will be donated to the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation to further their research efforts in the hopes of finding a cure.
The Book
You can purchase Emerson the Brave through Bookshop.org or Amazon.
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