INDIANAPOLIS — Olivia Stoy is a current student at Butler University.
She’s also a recently published author, whose new book ‘LIV: A Memoir’ shares the story of her battle with cancer.
“Despite so many bumps in the road, you can still make it through," Stoy said.
Middle school should be about passing biology and joining your favorite clubs.
A cancer diagnosis halted that for her.
“As a 12-year-old the first question I had was am I gonna die? And the second question was am I gonna lose my hair?”
The Steuben County-native was diagnosed with T-lymphoblastic lymphoma in 2016.
She relapsed in 2018.
“The only thing to do after that is a bone marrow transplant. So we prepared for that. One pretty big bump in the road was that the insurance at the time would not cover the bone marrow transplant," she said.
Stoy and her family had to raise $350,000 in just a couple of months to pay for the procedure.
“My community came together and that’s where Liv it up started," she said.
This was a dark time for Stoy.
Weekly blood and platelet transfusions, missing school, having a hard time making friends.
But through it all she kept her faith.
“There’s a lot of bad. When I look back I see a lot of the good that’s come from all of this."
Today, she’s cancer-free and studying psychology at Butler.
And in her free time she’s been working on her memoir.
“The book was actually another way of therapy and getting it all out. The reason I wanted to write the book was to have everything in like one place so that I could look back on it and not have to store it in my head and have it hanging above me," Stoy said.
She started the process in August 2021, with the help of Rick Farrant.
The book shares the ups and downs of her life and also includes family members and friends’ perspectives.
“I wanted to advocate for childhood cancer and show people what kids go through and what that looks like," she said. “It is personal. But I want people to be able to see the real side of it.”
Stoy plans to donate a portion of the proceeds from the book to organizations like Make-a-Wish.
There will be a book signing at Butler on Dec. 6 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at The Marquee Club on Butler’s Campus; 4602 Sunset Avenue, Indianapolis
