Cancer has touched my family in a way that has stayed with me since I was young. I lost my grandmother to cancer at an age when I was too young to fully understand the weight of that loss. I have come to understand her story less through what she lost and more through the strength with which she lived.

I’ve learned that we don’t always get to choose the things that challenge us, but we do get to choose what we make of them. For a long time, I didn’t know how strong I could be. Over the past several years, I’ve learned that strength isn’t the absence of fear or struggle, it’s choosing to keep moving through it. Boxing has become another chapter of that lesson.

This October, I’m stepping into the ring for the first time with Haymakers for Hope and raising $10,000 for cancer research, care, and support. I’m fighting in honor of my grandmother, for the families who have faced this disease, and for the belief that when we’re lucky enough to have the strength to fight, we can use it for something bigger than ourselves. Hope is always worth fighting for.