A personal journey of a Walk With Sally mentee alumni and her goal of becoming a Walk With Sally mentor in such a supportive cancer community. Hannah shares her story in her own words.

I was fourteen when I was first introduced to Walk With Sally, just one year after losing my mother to cancer. After she died, my dad enrolled my youngest brother, Max, in the program. When he was paired with his mentor, Greg, I had the privilege of seeing how much this organization was able to support him, especially in ways that I wasn’t able to at the time.

I wasn’t old enough to be a mentor in 2014, so I became a mentee and was paired with Wendy. She and I bonded over similar struggles we experienced with only having one parent. I appreciated having someone outside my immediate family who could truly relate to what I was going through. My relationship with Wendy further confirmed that I wanted to give that same support to someone else. Beyond the bonds that I had been forming with my siblings while navigating the loss of our mom, I wanted to be that support for my brothers and someone else through the WWS program. I wanted to be someone’s Wendy.

Looking for more ways to get involved in 2019, I got an internship with Walk With Sally. My time was dedicated to helping organize White Light White Night. Through my internship, I was able to see everything that goes into pairing mentors and mentees together, as well as, how much this organization is integrated in the community. I was so grateful to be a part of WWS and I felt that I was finally giving back to an organization that helped my family so much. My journey with Walk With Sally didn’t stop there. I’ve begun the training to become a mentor, and I am ready to jump back in so I can be paired with someone that I can support in a time that can be so painful and lonely.