Mom Beats Cancer Twice to Graduate Nursing School at 32

After surviving breast cancer while carrying her second child and enduring years of setbacks in nursing school, 32-year-old Kassandra Cerda finally walked across the graduation stage at South Texas College this spring with her nursing degree in hand.

Cerda's path to becoming a registered nurse began at La Joya High School, where taking Medical Terminology as a freshman convinced her nursing was her calling. But dyslexia and the demanding coursework led to her first major setback when she failed her first semester at STC's Vocational Nursing program in 2015.

Instead of giving up, Cerda enrolled in a certified nursing assistant program with her mother and worked as a CNA before returning to complete her vocational nursing degree in 2018. She was halfway through the program when she became pregnant with her first child but pushed through anyway.

Just as her career was taking off, devastating news arrived in February 2020. While 20 weeks pregnant with her second child, doctors diagnosed Cerda with stage 2 breast cancer and gave her one week to decide whether to terminate the pregnancy.

Cerda sought a second opinion at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and found doctors willing to treat her while she carried her son. She underwent four rounds of chemotherapy before giving birth at 36 weeks, then continued with surgery and radiation while caring for a newborn and toddler.

"I remember praying to God and saying, 'You can't take me yet. I need to see my kids grow. I need to reach my goals,' which was nursing school," Cerda said. "And thank God, here I am graduating."

Determined to finish what she started, Cerda returned to STC in 2022 to pursue her associate degree in nursing. Balancing medical appointments, motherhood, and coursework proved overwhelming, and she faced another setback near the end of the program.

This time felt different. "I wasn't hard on myself," Cerda said. "Failure for me is giving up. I had to keep trying."

After stepping away to focus on recovery and her children, Cerda remarried and welcomed her third child. Her new husband's support made all the difference, caring for the kids while she studied.

Why This Inspires

Cerda's story reminds us that setbacks don't define us. Over 10 years, she failed courses, battled cancer during pregnancy, recovered from chemotherapy and radiation, raised three children, and still refused to abandon her dream of becoming a nurse.

Her shift in mindset matters most. She stopped seeing failure as an ending and started seeing it as part of the journey, understanding that the only true failure is quitting.

Now equipped with both her degree and firsthand experience as a patient, Cerda brings unique empathy to her nursing career as she prepares to take her licensing exam.

"You didn't survive cancer just to quit now," she told herself, and that determination carried her across the finish line.