In memory of Katherine Craig Wilson
Katherine’s cancer journey began in April of 2000 when she was a 23 year old nursing student at UNC–Chapel Hill. While sitting in a clinical class discussing lung sounds, Katherine felt a crackling in her left lung as she breathed. She was immediately aware of what the crackling sensation might sound like through a stethoscope. She asked the instructor to listen to her lung and the instructor suggested that Katherine go to Student Health. Within a few weeks Katherine was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer.
Katherine began an aggressive treatment plan that included twice-a-day radiation with concurrent chemotherapy. After finishing the four cycles of chemotherapy, she had prophylactic brain radiation for five weeks.
Katherine continued taking classes over the next three years while she was treated with four more courses of chemotherapy and additional radiation. In a speech which Katherine made at a luncheon for UNC Lineberger Cancer Center donors in Chapel Hill in Jan. 2004 Katherine said, “My greatest challenge has been and still is to learn how to keep living with this illness as a part of my life instead of preparing to die from it. To still work on my nursing degree, to still do fun things, to not forget how to LIVE. I’ve learned and am still learning how to live today without looking too far ahead, to make the best of whatever is going on, to find something good in even the worst of days. I’ve seen that I am loved by a lot of people and that’s something most people go through life not knowing. I’ve learned that despite having cancer, I am an extremely blessed person.”
In May of 2004, Katherine proudly walked across the stage to receive her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from UNC – Chapel Hill. Katherine died on Feb. 16, 2005. About two months before she died, her friends started raising money to establish a scholarship in her memory in the UNC–School of Nursing. The first Katherine Wilson Scholar graduated in May 2007.