southphillyreview.com
Vol. 71 No. 44 | Oct. 31, 2018
PAID FOR BY WAGNER FOR GOVERNOR
Student athlete leads in face of Lymphoma String Theory School senior Alexis Carine continues with athletics despite several rounds of chemotherapy By Grace Maiorano SOUTH PHILLY REVIEW
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bout a month ago, String Theory School senior Alexis Carine was apple picking at a nearby farm with her family when a butterfly landed on her shoulder. An avid photographer, the South Philly resident quickly grabbed her camera and captured a shot of the serendipitous sight, as the insect symbolized something much deeper in her eyes. “It was nice how it was just swarming around me,” she recalled. “I loved butterflies my whole life, and when I got diagnosed, they impacted me a lot.” In April of this year, the teenager, whose flairs range from poetry to hip-hop, was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – a cancer that
attacks lymph nodes in the neck and armpits. With no family history of the illness and fairly bearable symptoms, the news shook Carine’s friends, family and the community. But the 18-year-old student, who was 17 years old at the time of the detection, refused to allow the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells to control any other areas of her life, as Carine finished out the school year, and although was not allowed to participate in the remainder of the softball season on doctors’ orders, made it to the games to cheer on her fellow teammates. Even gradually starting treatment was not enough of a reason for the creative writing major to withdraw from her junior year. “I actually stayed in school, which people were really surprised at,” she said. “It was April, so I was like, ‘Let me just ride the rest of the year out,’ See ALEXIS, page 12>>
GRACE MAIORANO/South Philly Review
The South Philly community was shook when String Theory School senior Alexis Carine was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma earlier this year. But the cancer couldn’t keep the 18-year-old poet, photographer, dancer, writer and athlete off the volleyball court this season.
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