Sara with her father, Woody, after one of her chemo treatments. Photo by Kari Timmerman

It’s been said that a woman’s smile is her best cosmetic.

Surrounded by CT scans, chemotherapy and IVs in the hospital, Sara Swenson exemplifies the truth in that.

Swenson — a 21-year-old Corban College senior from Fallon, Nev. — is taking time off from school to fight for her life against cancer. And through it all, her smile, often accompanied by her trademark laugh, still clearly shows her heart and beauty.

Swenson’s cancer battle began last March when she started feeling pain in her left knee while performing six days a week for “Seussical the Musical,” at the Pentacle Theatre in downtown Salem. She loved being a part of the cast in this competitive production. On a daily basis it fulfilled her need to sing and dance.  She came home every night excited but physically worn out from continuously dancing. Her left knee constantly ached.

“I thought it was a muscle pain from overworking it, or I had tweaked it or something,” Swenson said.

Her roommate, Kristen Allen, also a Corban senior, remembers helping Swenson ice her knee after coming home from a long night.

“We all thought she tore something in her knee, but, being Sara, she was able to keep moving and dancing on it like it wasn’t a big deal,” Allen recalls.

When the musical ended, Swenson focused on her leg, icing and resting it as needed. But as school ended in May, and the month drew to a close, the pain worsened, and the swelling wouldn’t go down. It was then that Swenson’s optimistic attitude and fear of the doctor weren’t enough to keep Allen from encouraging her to make a doctor’s appointment when she went home to Nevada in June.

June 4 was the day that changed Swenson’s life. Doctors ran tests on her knee, and the results came back: she had a tumor. This news sent Swenson and her parents to a bone specialist in San Francisco, where she underwent a bone biopsy. She was told she had a large tumor on her femur and was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer typically found in children and a powerful threat to her entire body.

Shocked at the reality of a cancerous tumor in her leg, Swenson said it didn’t seem real at first. “You never expect anything like this to happen to you, but, after the news started to settle in, I realized that God had a plan for my life that was much bigger than I could ever imagine,” Swenson said. “I knew I was going to need to learn to completely rely on God’s strength.”

That is how the “Sara” bracelets were inspired, with the verse Philippians 4:13 on them –– “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Wasting no time, Swenson began her first chemotherapy treatment on June 18. At the end of the month, there was another discovery. The cancer had spread farther up her femur, through her hip and into her lungs. Swenson’s chemo treatments became more frequent and vigorous, leaving her in the hospital for a majority of June, July, August and September.

“Since June, Sara has spent about three weeks out of each month in the hospital,” said Kari Timmerman, Swenson’s sister, as well as a Corban fitness instructor and townhouse resident director.  As of September 14, 56 days have been spent in the hospital and only 43 have been spent at home.

Because Swenson’s treatment schedule has left her in the hospital for such long periods of time, her siblings (Timmerman, Sam Swenson, and Heidi Steenhoek) have been close by to help support her and her parents. In addition to the love and care of her family, Swenson has been under the care of “awesome nurses in the pediatric oncology ward,” Timmerman said. “We have been blessed with really great nurses who do an amazing job.”

Swenson’s surgery was originally scheduled for Sept. 14, but because she was responding so well to treatment, her doctors and specialists didn’t want her to wait for an extensive period of time between chemo treatments and surgery.

They moved it up to Aug. 31. She was given a new knee joint, although she was able to keep her kneecap, a new femur and a partial hip replacement, all made of metal. The cancer in her lungs hasn’t spread, and doctors will most likely be able to do surgery after this next round of chemo.

Now with surgery behind her, Swenson has begun intensive inpatient rehab to get her back on her feet –– literally. She hasn’t walked since June and has a long journey ahead of her, but her attitude and drive are up for the challenge.

Swenson’s first words after she woke up from her surgery were, “Am I bionic now?”

This joke has helped remind her that, with all the pieces surgeons have put into her body, she can be a “bionic dancer.”

Recovering quickly, less than one week after her surgery, Swenson took four steps. Since then, her progress has increased every day.

Timmerman, who has visited her sister five times this summer, emphasizes the power of prayer.

“I know this sounds cliché, but the main thing people can do to help is pray,” she said. “We have such a strong support system both at home and from the community at Corban that it’s hard to say we need much more.”

Echoing her sister’s words, Swenson thanks everyone at Corban –– her second home and church family — for their prayers.

“I feel really blessed to go to a place like Corban because the fact that it is so small allows people to genuinely care. From writing on my [Facebook] wall to sending cards and praying for me, I really appreciate it.”

Swenson has continued to keep her spirits up, saying that the whole experience has had a positive side.

“It’s taught me even more that you have to count your blessings,” she said. “I have those days when I think I’m just stuck in a hospital bed, but I have to be thankful for the little things, like walking, dressing myself, privacy and everything else we take for granted.”

Intensive rehab, lung surgery, and more chemo treatments will continue for Swenson as she continues to regain her strength and fight the cancer left in her body, in hopes of being cancer free by the end of March.