UCF graduate with cancer finds ‘finish line’ with degree
For most of Cherie A. Carr’s classmates, today’s graduation ceremony at the University of Central Florida will mark a milestone as they prepare to start their working lives.
But for Carr, 63, the moment likely will serve as a grand finale.
Three weeks ago, Carr was diagnosed with cancer in her brain, lungs, pancreas, liver, gallbladder and colon. She’s now in hospice care and her doctor estimated she has only a few months to live.
On a recent afternoon, Carr smiled often while speaking candidly about her prognosis. She sometimes relies on a wheelchair now but plans to walk across the stage at the ceremony. She said she hopes her journey will inspire her classmates, many of whom are several decades younger.
“They need to think about this 63-year-old woman who has five pieces of organs with cancer and she is determined to go to that finish line,” said Carr, who is receiving a bachelor of arts in radio and TV production.
Carr has long been an extraordinary student, said Stephanie Rice, her first and last TV production instructor at UCF.
“I started seeing how she was in class,” she said. “She was a perfectionist, always professional. When she was with other group members, if they didn’t perform right, it drove her crazy.”
For Carr, the decision to go back to school in her 50s was a matter of necessity. Carr did word proc-
essing for a law firm for 16 years before being laid off in 2009. She anticipated losing her job, she said. Her desk was already packed when she received the news.
She decided to enroll at Seminole State College, taking out student loans to pay for her education and living expenses.
“I didn’t have any other options whatsoever,” said Carr, who is single and doesn’t have children. “I would’ve lost my house. When you rely on yourself, you’re the sole provider, you have to do whatever it takes, even if it’s the wrong time of life. There’s obstacles to everything. You just do it.”
After earning her associate degree from Seminole State with a 4.0 GPA, she transferred to UCF to complete her bachelor’s.
Rice remembers assigning her students to create commercials. Carr created an elaborate animated sequence showing a man being run over by a truck. The character got off the ground and found a chocolate bar. When he put the snack to his lips, he was instantly transported to a beach. Rice said students weren’t required to incorporate animation in their commercials, but Carr did.
“It was a lot of work, above and beyond what other people did,” Rice said.
Carr discovered her passion for TV production when she ran the jib, a camera attached to a device with a counterweight and controls at the other end, at her church and in school.
“I was a creative person,” she said. “I was always doing creative things in the law firm, like graphics. Then, I found out that I liked the sound of the buzz of the camera in my ears when you have your earphones on. That was exciting for me.”
During the past couple of months, Carr did a paid internship at NBC Golf in Orlando. She marveled at the size of the building and the friendliness of her coworkers, even the top executives.
“But the problem was that I could tell that I was getting sick,” Carr said. “I was suffering every day. I couldn’t put on my best. And that bothered me because I always like to be energetic and be a good, marketable person.”
She came to her internship with migraines and lost sleep because of pain in her abdomen. She initially chalked it up to the stress and long hours of being a student. But her energy was sapped. She was forced to sit down after short spurts of activity.
Finally, the pain became so great Carr went to the hospital on July 11. Expecting a gallstone, the hospital performed an ultrasound and found cancerous lesions all over her body.
She received her diagnosis
on July 13.
Carr called her sister, Vicki Snell, and told her she had cancer. Snell immediately quit her job in Kentucky to move to Florida and become her sister’s caregiver.
And the news got worse. A day after she arrived in Florida, Snell came down with pneumonia and was admitted to the same hospital as her sister for two days. The day the sisters were released, they learned their father had a massive stroke. He later died, and Carr plans to attend his funeral on Sunday.
Carr said she feels her body is declining rapidly. When her doctor gave her the diagnosis, she said he seemed apologetic.
“I said, ‘I’m OK with that,’ ” Carr said. “I hold onto my faith in Jesus and I know where I’m going and the one way I get through this is I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”
Snell said her sister’s contentment is a comfort.
“Her being OK makes it a little more palatable to me,” Snell said. “Not completely, but it makes it a little bit better.”
During the coming months, Carr said she’s looking for the “silver linings.” She and Rice laughed on a recent afternoon when Carr announced, “I don’t have to pay my student loans now.”