Being on top of your health is extremely important. A lot of the time, if people feel a little off or not themselves they tend to shrug it off. Only if the symptoms get progressively worse do they decide to go to the doctor.
For 17-year-old Caly Bevier, the fact that there was a lump growing inside of her stomach didn’t seem like such a big deal at the time. She just carried on with her days, thinking nothing really of the growing lump.
Then in 2015, Caly had just gotten back from a family vacation in Orlando when she and her mom noticed that something was really wrong. Her stomach was bloated more than ever and she was continuously vomiting. She felt awful.
They finally decided to go see a doctor, who believed that the then 15-year-old had probably gotten pregnant.
Bevier tells PEOPLE “She (the doctor) said the only other thing it could be is a tumor on your ovaries…”
Bevier said they came to a grim realization then: “That’s what it has to be then.” They quickly learned that the competitive cheerleader had cancer.
The high school sophomore from Bowling Green, Ohio had a 5-pound tumor and a rare form of Stage 3 ovarian cancer.
Caly ended up spending three months in-and-out of the hospital going through 21 chemo infusions. They caught the cancer fairly late and Caly is truly lucky to be alive.
Her dad, Adam Bevier told PEOPLE, “After her treatments we were told that she was in remission. We consider ourselves the lucky ones to be able to say our daughter beat cancer.”
The fight that she found in herself helped her get through the toughest time in her life. She told PEOPLE “I kept telling myself to just be positive.”
“I knew everything would be okay in the end. When you’re going through something so hard you realize how important all the little things in life really are. It has changed me.”
Caly is now adamant about making people more aware of the signs of ovarian cancer. These signs are probably one of the most difficult things to detect out of most cancer symptoms.
She tells PEOPLE “I had a lump growing in my stomach for a year and I just ignored it. I didn’t really think anything of it because it wasn’t a problem.”
Her doctor, Dagmar Stein, diagnosed her with a very rare form of ovarian cancer. It’s difficult to detect because of the very non-specific symptoms that come along with it.
Dr. Stein notes, “There are some symptoms, pain in the back and abdomen, burning urination and some constipation, but the symptoms are very nonspecific.”
Typically you don’t feel anything until the cancer is pretty large, which is why it can be deadly for women. Caly had her left ovary and Fallopian tube removed.
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In spite of all that, she should still be able to have kids one day. For now, she’s excited for her bright future and what’s in store. Now 17, Caly decided to get her GED and move to L.A.
She wants to pursue her passion for music and entertaining. She said that she decided to pursue this new ambition after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Appearing on The Ellen Degeneres Show and America’s Got Talent, Caly hopes to continue being the voice for people with cancer. She hopes to do that through her music.
