I lost my mother to brain cancer when I was 10. She was 33.

There were no treatments available for her at that time. Today, there are treatment options, but still we lose too many loved ones to cancer.

I know. I recently lost my brother and brother-in-law to cancer, and many of my beloved “cancer warriors” who have been my patients.

I know how heart-breaking it is to be told there is nothing more that can be done. I also know that anything is possible, and that clinical trials can provide hope and new treatments that can allow us to beat cancer.

My journey began when I met a young woman named Kristen Adelman, who today also is a PPD Beach2Battleship Triathlon Hero.

We met several years ago while training for a triathlon, and a few months later she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I became her caregiver over the next several years, and as Kristen says, it was a clinical trial that saved her life.

During that time, I realized how enormous this journey is and that I wanted to be a part of it to help empower these incredibly brave people, like Kristen, battling cancer. I studied to become an oncology nurse and started a non-profit organization called Team Inspiration to provide healing resources. Today, I am an oncology nurse at the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Greenebaum Cancer Center.

One of my very special cancer warriors was first diagnosed with cancer as a teenager and had to have her leg amputated. She had to relearn how to swim with one leg. She was cancer-free for many years but is now in her early thirties and battling cancer once again. When offered the option of a clinical trial, she said it was a decision she didn't have to think twice about – that she was fighting to get back her ordinary, but extraordinary, life.

Today, many of my friends are beneficiaries of clinical trials and are living active and fulfilling lives – working, going to school, raising families, doing triathlons, giving back and inspiring one another!

We need to share our stories of success and inspire one another. We also need to empower the cancer community with knowledge and access to clinical trials so that we can provide hope and find new treatments that will one day allow us to beat cancer forever.