On a recent afternoon, a Harrison High School senior and her mother huddled in front of a laptop computer in the school’s cyber café, preparing for a telehealth conference with a doctor at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver. Mother and daughter were bracing themselves for bad news.

Zariea Patrick, 17, has been battling a brain tumor for more than two years. Last year, after months of grueling treatment, they had good reason to believe they had beaten it. But a few months after “ringing the bell” at Children’s, her symptoms had returned: headaches, fatigue, sensitivity to light and loss of peripheral vision. 

The diffuse low-grade glioma was back with a vengeance and proving resistant to an oral chemotherapy that Patrick preferred over the standard treatment.

“Regular chemo made me so sick,” said Patrick, a three-sport athlete who hopes to attend Howard University. “We were hoping the oral chemo would be effective without the side effects.”

Chemotherapy works by using drugs to kill rapidly growing cancer cells, but it is often used on brain tumors even if they are benign, like Patrick’s. But the drugs don’t always discriminate between the cells they are supposed to kill, and other, healthy cells in the body. That’s why chemotherapy patients often suffer from nausea, vomiting, fatigue, greater risk of infection and other adverse side effects.

Patrick knew the drill, all too well, and didn’t want to go through it again.

After a brief consultation with the doctor, Zariea’s mother, Donisha White, hugged her daughter and offered encouraging words. The oral chemotherapy wasn’t working; in fact, the tumor had grown by 10%. Patrick knew what that meant: she needed to go back on a treatment protocol she hated.

But they had beaten the tumor once, White told her daughter. They could do it again.

A hard foul

Patrick’s health journey began, in all places, on a basketball court.

In 2023, during Patrick’s sophomore year, she and her Harrison teammates were scrimmaging against the boys’ team when Patrick drove to the basket for a layup and took a hard elbow to the side of her head.

“I blacked out,” she said. “When I woke up, I went through our concussion protocol and was cleared.”

Headaches, dizziness and fatigue are typical after a blow to the head. But as time went by, the symptoms should have begun to fade. Instead, they were getting worse. White began to suspect something else was wrong with her daughter.

“That didn’t seem right,” White said. “It started to look like more than just a concussion.”

An MRI at Children’s Hospital confirmed White’s suspicions in a devastating way: a tumor was lodged in the right side of Zariea’s brain. The good news was that the tumor was not cancerous. The bad news: surgery was not an option because of the size and location of the glioma.

“At first, I didn’t really understand,” Patrick said. “I thought, ‘I have to go through chemotherapy? I’m a sophomore in high school!’”

“We were shocked, to say the least,” White said. “It was like a kick in the stomach. A brain tumor? She was 15 years old.”

What followed was a year of regular trips to Children’s for chemotherapy, which shrank the tumor but exacted a terrible toll on Patrick’s body.

“I felt like I was sick all the time,” Patrick said. “It was terrible.”

Despite the grueling treatment protocol, Patrick remained in school and continued to play sports.

“Even days when I was tired, getting out of the hospital late at night, I felt like I still wanted to go to school, go back to practice, still wanted to push because I didn’t want this brain tumor to stop me from what I hope to become,” she told Gazette news partner KOAA.

On May 6, 2024, friends, family members and Children’s Hospital staff cheered as Patrick rang the “balloon bell,” signaling the end of her battle with the brain tumor.

“We had a wonderful summer, and a wonderful Thanksgiving,” White said.

The family took a Make-A-Wish trip to New York City in December. But as they marveled at the sights and sounds of the Big Apple, the tumor was quietly making its comeback.

“It was such a great time,” White said. “And then, on Dec. 19, right before Christmas, we learned that the tumor had returned.”

Harrison circles the wagons

When a member of the Harrison School District 2 community is suffering, the district rallies around them “in every way we can,” said Superintendent Wendy Birhanzel. “Sometimes we do it quietly, and sometimes in a powerful, collective action.”

During Zariea’s first battle with the brain tumor, she managed to maintain a 3.5 grade-point average, work toward an associate’s degree at Pikes Peak State College, participate in sports, and serve an internship at Children’s Hospital.

“I felt that I could take what I learned on my own journey, and use It to help others,” she said.

Her perseverance, despite weekly treatments that sapped much of her energy, inspired her peers and got the attention of her district.

“She continues to show up with a courage and determination most of us can barely fathom,” Birhanzel said. “She is a source of hope and resilience for our entire community.”

In October, the Bob Penkhus Volvo car dealership surprised the family with a much-needed gift, a 2019 Mazda sedan. The family’s primary vehicle was in disrepair, forcing them to use MedRide, a medical transportation service, for doctor’s appointments in Denver.

“MedRide has been an awesome tool for us,” White said. “But you have to call ahead to get authorization for the ride. Then you have to wait for a car to become available to pick you up after the appointment.”

Harrison teachers, coaches and administrators cheered as Bob Penkhus officials unveiled the car.

“We were floored when they told us it was ours,” White said. “I still can’t believe it.”

Each year, the Harrison volleyball team hosts a “Dig Pink” game, a fundraiser for breast cancer research. This year, the team decided to use the proceeds to help their teammate fight her illness.

“Our commitment is simple: to stand with her and her family so they feel, without question, that they are never alone,” Birhanzel said.

“The community support has been amazing,” White said. “It’s incredible to know that we don’t have to be strong all the time; that we have a community we can lean on when we’re tired.”

The road ahead

Zariea was visibly distraught when she learned that she needed to go back on standard chemo.

“This is not how I wanted my senior year of high school to be,” she told her mother.

She had surgery to implant a chemotherapy port and received her first treatment on Nov. 21. A year ago, she and her family thought this part of her life was behind her. Now, she receives treatment each week as her doctors look for a solution that will rid her of the tumor for good.

After completing an “amazing” volleyball season, Zariea made the difficult decision  to forgo her senior basketball campaign, citing physical fatigue and mental strain. She continues to support her team as the manager.

On Friday, Jan. 9, Zariea is scheduled to undergo her weekly chemo treatment. Two days later, she will turn 18.

“She’s been through so much, sometimes I forget how young she still is,” said White, an educator at Otero Elementary School. “But she is not fighting alone. She has a family who believes in her, and a community with strength that has helped carry her through.”