Hannah Park's Cancer Journey
- Hannah Park was 20 when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, which is more common in older women.
- One of her first videos on TikTok, which showed her getting ready for chemotherapy, has more than 2.1 million views.
- She created a six month transformation video, which also went viral, showing her before and after chemo when her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes grew back.
Hannah Park says she downloaded
TikTok as a joke. When she posted a
video of herself getting ready for her first chemotherapy, she thought only a handful of people, including her friends, would see it. "I was so bored. I was taking little videos of everything that was going on," Park says. "I was just hoping that somebody will see one of these videos and it will help them get through whatever they are going through if they're in a similar spot." Little did she know that her video would get 2.1 million views.
Related: College Freshman, Alexis Kawasaki, Drops Out of College After an Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis, and Takes to TikTok to Share Her Journey and Find Inspiration
Read More Park was shocked that her video went viral. She has graciously agreed to allow us to use her content in order to help our community. "I never expected anything like that to happen at all," she says. "All of the comments are so encouraging, so supportive, so kind. It really does help me feel better." She was diagnosed with
cervical cancer in November 2019 at age 20. Cervical cancer is
very rare in young women. Her life changed quickly after her diagnosis. She went from attending college in-person to online learning and began fertility-preserving treatment or egg freezing. "I didn't know how to process it," Park says. "But the one thing that really struck me hard was the thought that I would never be able to have my own kids. I have always known I wanted a family of my own." She is hopeful about having at least one healthy child in the future, via a surrogate, as doctors were able to freeze seven of her eggs. After fertility treatment, Park had surgery to remove her uterus, cervix and ovaries, and eventually started chemotherapy and radiation.
Related: 5 Well-Known Women Who Have Battled Cervical Cancer Survivors Like Erin Andrews & Judy Blume InspirePark says she initially was not concerned about hair loss as a result of chemotherapy. "We shaved my head. It wasn't really that emotional for me because my face still looked the same." However, she felt triggered once she lost the hair on her eyebrows and eyelashes. To honor her cancer journey and how far she had come, once her hair started to grow back she created a TikTok video, which went viral, to show her six month transformation. Watching it back, she says, "It feels like I was an alien, something that's not like me at all. It's really weird. My whole family is like I don't remember you ever looking like that."
She has been in complete remission since July 2020, around the same time that she turned 21. "My 21st birthday, it's this exciting day and everything. I had a tiny buzz cut at that point, my eyelashes were coming back, my eyebrows were too," Park says. "I was starting to feel like myself again."
Her cancer journey has taught her the true meaning of strength. "I am so much stronger than I could have known. I went through my chemo during COVID, alone. I had this major surgery. I recovered," Park says. "If I can do that, I can get through anything and that's nice to know."
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Noorulain Khawaja is a freelance multimedia journalist. Read More
