University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 34, June 12
     
         Saundra Anderson beats the odds while earning degree
     
     After months of grueling chemotherapy and just three
days after her first radiation treatment-all to combat
Hodgkin's disease, Saundra K. Anderson of Bear ignored her
doctor's advice and attended her first class as a nursing
student at UD.
     "I had already delayed going full-time one semester to
have chemo, and now I was going to have radiation every day.
The doctor said I should postpone going to school for
another semester but I said, 'No way. It was hard to get in
and I want to be a nurse.'"
     Two years later, this hard working cancer survivor with
a positive attitude is a nursing department treasure. Every
bit the success story, Anderson's victory over her disease
(now in remission) and her dedication to education are
inspiring.
     "I just couldn't stop," she said of her commitment to
getting her degree. "I knew if I did I would be left alone
with my illness. I needed my studies to keep my mind off of
it...to keep focused on something else."
     Nursing department faculty who didn't mind when she
fled to the ladies' room, who had time to stop and ask her
how she felt and who rescheduled exams when she was
particularly low all helped pull her through, she said.
     Now, with her educational journey complete, she plans
to study for her state boards, take her exams in the summer
and get a job by fall-she hopes in oncology nursing.
     "I know what it feels like to be a cancer patient," she
said. "I've been in those shoes. I know what they are
thinking. I've had rounds and rounds of tests, I've been
poked and prodded. I know how it feels to lie in a hospital
bed all day and have no nurses come around who can stop for
a few minutes and talk."
     Anderson was just 31 when she was diagnosed with
Hodgkin's-a type of lymphoma At the time, she was working as
a clerk and going to Delaware Technical and Community
College at night. She consulted a doctor for shoulder pain
and, after being told it was probably stress, was given a
muscle relaxant. Four months later, she began to have
trouble swallowing. In a follow-up exam, the doctor found an
enlarged lymph node. A battery of tests followed.
     "They called me at work and told me I had cancer,"
Anderson said. "I was scared to death. I didn't know what to
do."
     With the help and support of her husband, Ansel, and
her daughter, Chontae, now 9, Anderson decided to try and
live her life as normally as possible.
     Although she was scheduled to begin courses at UD in
September 1994, she wrote asking for a postponement until
February 1995. Even so, she continued to take two classes at
Del Tech during her chemo treatment.
     One bright moment during that time came in the form of
a note she received from Pam Beeman, nursing, assuring her
that the would always be a place for at UD when her health
permitted her to return.
     "I knew then what a caring place the College of Nursing
was. I have always kept that note," Anderson said.
     When Anderson did begin a semester later, she was
determined to graduate with her class. She made up for lost
time by taking courses during the summer and in Winter
Session.
     A native of Jamaica, Anderson said she has always
wanted to be a nurse. She is the first member of her family
to get a college degree.
     "I had always wanted a job where I could help people,"
she said. "I always admired nurses. I went back to Jamaica
about seven years ago, and a good friend of mine had become
a nurse. I began to think, 'Well, if she can do it, maybe I
can, too.'"
     And, while there were times when Anderson seemed to
doubt her abilities, "I felt like it took me three times as
long to pick up things the other students got right away,"
her grade point average and special awards at Honors Day
belie her fears.
     She was the recipient of a Delaware Health Council
Scholarship, an award based on academic performance,
financial need and college recommendation- an award she said
was particularly helpful in light of all the medical bills
piling up at home.
     She also received the prestigious Madeline McDowell
Award for the senior nursing student who is strongly
motivated to purse nursing education under the existence of
personal obstacles and who gives promise of making a
meaningful contribution to the profession.
     "I have always thought that it was a great privilege to
be able to come to the University," Anderson said. "You have
no idea how happy I am."
                                                -Beth Thomas