Student who beat cancer now training to help others do the same

Every cancer survivor celebrates the news that they’re cancer-free.  But for Auburn student Madeline Dunn, the end of her treatment came with a lightbulb moment: she realized she wanted to be a nurse — and she wanted to specialize in pediatric oncology.

“When I started college, I had no idea what I wanted to do,” she said. “As I was going through treatments, I started to grow this passion that I want to give back to the people that were there with me during the hardest times.”

A native of Bay Shore, New York, Dunn will graduate in December with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She will enter the field armed with a four-year degree, the experience of beating cancer and the compassion needed to care for others fighting the same battle she won.  

A tough start 

Dunn arrived on campus in August 2021 and dove headfirst into campus life, making friends, rushing a sorority and taking core classes. But a visit to the Auburn University Medical Clinic showed something was wrong, and by October, she had medically withdrawn and rushed home to Long Island to begin treatment   for Hodgkin’s lymphoma at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dunn’s treatment plan involved bi-weekly visits to an outpatient clinic for five-hour infusions. Over the six months of treatment, her time was well spent: While she was battling cancer, she was also completing community college coursework online and planting the seeds of her future career. 

“The treatments were long, so it was basically five hours of talking to nurses at the clinic,” she said. “I started asking them how they got into nursing, what it’s like to be a nurse. When I knew I would be coming back to Auburn, I emailed my advisor and asked if I could change my major.”

After her last scan showed no signs of cancer, Dunn decided to return to the Plains the following fall — despite the fact she had lost her hair and was still regaining her strength. Thankfully, she had good friends to help her readjust to college life.

“I was very insecure and not feeling my best, but I wanted to continue my education,” she said. “I had very good roommates, and I had kept in touch with them, so I think having a good support system when I got back made it a lot easier.”

Finding a fellowship 

As she began to plan for her final semesters, Dunn knew she wanted to gain experience in her chosen specialty.

“I’ve always really liked working with kids,” she said. “You don’t really see that much pediatric oncology in a clinical setting in nursing school, so I knew I wanted to find a summer internship that would give me that experience.”

Dunn reached out to the nurses who cared for her during her treatment for ideas. They put her in touch with the NewYork-Presbyterian hospital system, and she was accepted into the Flynn Fellowship program at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, which she completed this summer.

When she arrived in New York, she was assigned to work with a nurse in the hospital’s pediatric oncology unit. The inpatient setting allowed Dunn to grow close with many of the patients, and being present during the physicians’ rounds meant she could really be involved in their treatment plans.

“It was nice to be able to see what the doctors were saying and what the plan of treatment was going to be, and we were able to give input, because we were with the patients more than the doctors,” Dunn said. “We really got to advocate for them.”

In the second half of the fellowship, she worked in an outpatient setting with patients receiving infusions and other treatments — just as she had. At the end of the summer, Dunn completed a research project and presented it to NewYork-Presbyterian’s board of directors.

While she calls the presentation itself “terrifying,” she embraced the opportunity to make her research personal, incorporating her experiences as both a patient and a care provider.

“My presentation was on how we can make pediatric procedures less intimidating for children, because they go through a lot, especially when it comes to things like port placements,” she said. “I wanted to find ways to make their stress go down and make the whole thing more comfortable for them.”

On the right path 

As a cancer survivor and a new College of Nursing graduate, Dunn has no doubt she chose the right career. And on the first day of her fellowship, her ability to help a pediatric cancer patient — who was about to have his first treatment — confirmed that.

“I could tell he was really nervous, and he was asking, ‘Is this going to hurt?’” she recalled. “He was just very worried, so I told him that I actually had the same type of cancer he had. I got to tell him and his parents my story and what it was like for me, so that it could ease their worries.”