‘American Idol’ Alum Avalon Young, 26, Teases Fans with a Sneak Peak of her New Album Despite Ongoing Brain Cancer Battle: ‘I Can’t Wait For You To Hear This!!!!”

The 26-year-old shared in an interview with TMZ that she began having seizures in November 2020. Doctors initially thought it was an issue with anxiety or serotonin levels, but Young's mother knew something was off. After various tests and therapies, Young's mother pushed her to get an MRI. She was shocked to learn she had a tumor on the left frontal lobe of her brain "about as big as a peach."

She had an intense surgery on Feb. 26 to remove the tumor, but her health issues were far from over. On April 3, Young shared that she had been diagnosed with brain cancer and would need a second surgery on May 27 followed by chemotherapy and radiation.

But through it all, Young has been determined to keep doing what she loves. In her most recent Instagram post, she shared photos of her album cover and expressed her gratitude to all the people that have helped make her dream possible.

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The cover art is a headshot of Young with her shaved head half brown, half dyed bleach blond. Written in hot pink lettering on the blond side is the name of her album, Lush. The third picture in the post is where she gives her thank-yous.

“A massive thank you to my entire team,” she writes. “You guys stood by me through the toughest days of my life but through recovery and surgery we still somehow managed to create this art together.”

Kicking Cancer's Ass One Survivor's Advice for Taking On Brain Cancer

Understanding Brain Cancer

Normal function of the brain and spinal cord can become difficult when a person has brain cancer. This is because a tumor can put pressure that is on or spreads into nearby normal tissue.

Young has not specified her type of brain cancer, but it is important to note that there are many different types. Some types of brain and spinal cord tumors are more likely to spread into nearby parts of the brain or spinal cord than others. Slow-growing tumors may be considered benign, but even these tumors can cause serious problems.

One type of brain tumor, for example, is a glioblastoma (GBM). It is the most aggressive primary brain tumor. But despite the aggressive nature of GBM, the top brain researcher in the U.S. and neuro-oncologist at Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Henry Friedman, tells SurvivorNet that, "You are not dead just because you're diagnosed with a glioblastoma. So many people are told by their doctors or their institutions that they're at, 'I'm sorry, put your affairs in order and just move on.'"

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This message of hope comes from the promise of future clinical trials like the one Dr. Friedman and his colleagues are conducting at The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center using the modified poliovirus. You can hear from Dr. Friedman directly in the interview he did with SurvivorNet, above.

Working During a Cancer Battle

During your cancer journey, it is important to try to find happiness every day. Taking just as much care of your emotional health as your physical health when living with cancer actually may improve your health outcomes. To better understand the role of emotional health and social support after a cancer diagnosis, we spoke to Dr. Dana Chase, a gynecologic oncologist at Arizona Oncology.

"We know from good studies that emotional health is associated with survival, meaning better quality of life is associated with better outcomes," Chase told SurvivorNet in a previous interview. "So working on your emotional health, your physical well-being, your social environment [and] your emotional well-being are important and can impact your survival. If that's related to what activities you do that bring you joy, then you should try to do more of those activities."

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But how do you take care of your emotional health? Chase says it's as simple as doing the things you love much like Avalon Young is doing now.

Chase recommends writing down ten things that make you happy and intentionally making the time to do those activities throughout the day.

"Sometimes I will talk to a patient about making [a] list of the top ten things that bring them joy,” Chase says. “And trying to do those ten things…to make at least 50 percent of their experiences positive throughout the day."

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.