Being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia right after starting college, getting the diagnosis as an 18-year-old while six months pregnant, relapsing a week after re-entering school years later and pulling through two bone-marrow transplants and a hip replacement is a staggering list to read, but recent ASU alumna Marisa Borjon lived it.
She got the diagnosis is 2007 when she felt a jolt of blinding back pain after dealing with aches she attributed to her pregnancy. She received her diagnosis and soon began rounds of light chemotherapy, trying to save herself as well as her daughter.
“When I first got diagnosed … the only thing that was on my mind was my daughter,” Borjon said. “I wasn’t even thinking about myself, I was more worried about her than anything else and I think that’s why I fought so hard. To me it was more of a breeze because it was all about her, her, her, her, her.”
Her daughter, Aleece, was born premature several months later and subsequently spent two months in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Borjon said perhaps her biggest struggle was not being able to fully experience being a new mother and instead focusing on getting better, explaining that she wasn’t able to do things like change her baby’s diapers.
Two years later Borjon went into remission where she met her now fiancé Eric Dahlgren and began giving speeches through the American Cancer Society. After eight months she enrolled again at University or Arizona.
After a week in classes, her cancer relapsed.
“We both realized our lives were about to change again, her attitude was great about it. She was down, but kept fighting and was so strong about it,” Dahlgren said.
Borjon moved back home from Tucson to Clifton due to financial struggles, undergoing heavier treatments of chemotherapy and a hip replacement surgery as a side effect of her chemo.
Despite this, Borjon pushed on in her education, enrolling in Eastern Arizona College to continue her degree.
“There were times when I was really tired, but I never ever considered (not pursuing my degree), that was never even on my mind. I never didn’t want it,” Borjon said.
In 2012 she graduated with a Business Administration degree from EAC where she went on in 2013 to study at ASU through its partnership with EAC.
On May 15, 2015, Borjon graduated ASU with a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Her time at ASU was again riddled with struggles, she explained she had seven different specialists and had to meet with doctors constantly, driving back and forth between her home and Tucson to do so. Borjon was finally cleared by her oncologist in February.
“I couldn’t have done it. I tell her that all the time. I mean, she did it twice and I don’t think I could have even done it the first time,” Dahlgren said.
Looking optimistically toward a future with her fiancé and her daughter, Borjon is currently interning at Freeport McMoRan’s Morenci mine and eying a masters degree.
“I’d like to write a book about it someday, that’s kind of been my goal every since I got sick. I feel that now that I’ve graduated, I can begin working on it, I’d like to share my story with anyone and everyone,” Borjon said.
Reach the reporter at megan.janetsky@asu.edu or follow @meganjanetsky on Twitter.
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