Olivia Bieri had the best time in the fall of 2023.
A freshman at Illinois State University, Bieri had just pledged her dream sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and was beginning required classes to earn her bachelor’s degree in nursing.
“I struggled a lot in high school with friends and everything,” Bieri, 19, tells PEOPLE. “But I was finally able to find my people (in college) and I was so happy. Everything was so perfect.”
In February 2023, she took an 11-hour train ride to Conway, Arkansas, to see her boyfriend of more than four years.
But on the long drive back to ISU, Bieri felt a strange pain.
“I just thought I had a cracked neck or something,” Bieri recalls. “I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
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Olivia Bieri with her mom Tamberlyn, dad David and brother Jacob.
Tamberlyn Bieri
After she returned to school, ISU doctors gave the Missouri native muscle relaxers to combat neck pain. But she was also given strict instructions to return immediately if the pain did not subside in the following days.
And the pain did not decrease.
“I came back and everything was so swollen you could tell something was wrong,” Bieri remembers. “They took an x-ray and did a complete blood count and then they noticed that my white blood cells were super high. They told me that I had to go to the emergency room right away.”
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From left: Jacob, David, Olivia and Tamberlyn Bieri.
Tamberlyn Bieri
A few days later at Carla BroMenn Medical Center in Normal, Illinois, Bieri says she began to feel that something very wrong.
“I kind of figured it out on my own,” notes Bieri. “I’m a nursing student, so I have that medical brain. I know some terms. The doctor said he wanted to transfer me to the oncology department at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. That’s all he had to say. I knew that oncology meant cancer.”
It was there that Bieri began her fight against leukemia.
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Olivia Bieri.
Tamberlyn Bieri
“Shocked is not enough of a description,” says Bieri’s mother, Tamberlyn Bieri, when she first heard of her daughter’s diagnosis of acute undifferentiated leukemia. “My husband (David Bieri) and I were so happy that she was finally able to be happy and successful in school. She made wonderful friends, got great grades, and really expanded her horizons. To see all of this taken away from her is devastating.”
Fortunately, Bieri and her family, which includes her brother Jacob, are surrounded by love during these difficult days, including from ISU sororities and fraternities. In recent weeks, organizations have come together to show support for Bieri in the form of fundraisers.
“My husband and I were both Greek, so we know all the good things about Greek life, but the reality is that Greek life has such a bad reputation,” says Tamberlyn.
“To see not only her sorority, but the fraternities and other sororities rally around her was overwhelming and makes me so proud of the Greek community. It’s family no matter what house you’re in.”
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Olivia Bieri with her sorority sisters at Illinois State University.
Tamberlyn Bieri
Currently, a group of Biera’s supporters is working hard to find a bone marrow donor that could ultimately save her life. A recent bone marrow drive organized by Kappa Kappa Gamma was attended by over 120 students, and another bone marrow drive will be held on April 20 at St. Louis.
Her family also set up a GoFundMe.
“Chemotherapy won’t cure her,” explains Tamberlyn, whose daughter is now at home but will return to the hospital twice a week for chemotherapy and blood tests until she is deemed ready for a bone marrow transplant. “Her only way to be cured is a bone marrow transplant.”
And if all goes as Bieri hopes, she’ll get that bone marrow transplant and finally go back to school in the fall.
“I’m supposed to be living in the house next year and I’m just hoping and praying I can do that,” Bieri says quietly. “What I miss the most right now is being at school. I’d rather worry about tests than cancer.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education