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- [Chiara] This is what I love most about Montefiore.
I wasn't just a patient.
They cared about my life and my story after all of this.
(dramatic theme music)
(soft piano sounds)
Knowing that I had something to look forward to after
I was done with cancer.
Ballet ultimately became the motivator
throughout my treatment.
(soft classical music)
- [Julie] I had seen Chiara as a student.
She was a little aspiring dancer at that time.
And then when I came here,
Chiara was starting as a member of the training program.
Very hard working, very serious.
That's kind of just how she is.
(soft piano sounds)
- [Chiara] At some point during the first season,
I was experiencing sharp pain in my femur.
Where almost about like someone was just
stabbing the leg 24/7.
Ballet was kind of my safe place and
it just made me happy being in there and moving and
it kind of helped me forget about
what was going on in the leg.
- When Chiara first shared with us that she had a tumor,
that in itself was really scary,
but we were all so relieved that it was just something that
she was going to have her hip surgery
and that it was going to be taken care of.
And then the tumor grew back.
- That's when my family and I decided
I needed a second opinion.
We decided on Montefiore.
When I went to go see Dr. Geller
I walked in with my papers from
the hospital where I was originally treated.
He turned them down immediately
and he was like, "that's nice,
"but we're going to look at this with a fresh pair of eyes."
He could kind of tell right then and there that
it didn't look like an osteoid osteoma,
that something was definitely going on.
My mom realized it first,
she read the oncology tag
and she knew that it wasn't going to be good news.
- Chiara had been misdiagnosed.
This was a very serious bone cancer.
I just remember (sighs)
you know, like, the floor dropping out.
Also a great sense of relief that she was at Montefiore.
I've known of Montefiore,
I know that their reputation is exactly
for that hospital that could take care of her and give her
the treatment that she needed.
- [Chiara] A week later I started my first chemo cycle.
They gave me two options.
The first one would've been surgery.
They said, if you do that,
you'll never be able to dance again.
And the second option was radiation
and they said with that, you should be able to get
almost full flexibility and mobility back
once you're done with all of this.
Dr. Geller the orthopedic oncologist,
he was the one who would've done the surgery,
but he was the one rooting for radiation,
so hearing someone who would've performed your surgery
want you to take the radiation approach and agree with that
was just very reassuring for me.
I really appreciate that it's multiple doctors
going into making ultimately a life-changing decision.
Dr. Lowe, Dr. Geller, Dr. Alexander Challer, Dr. Box.
So I just really appreciated having
multiple people by my side.
- She slowly starting getting stronger,
the treatments stopped, and she just, you know,
kept making those little baby steps forward.
You don't have words to express how proud you are
of somebody that makes that journey.
- [Chiara] And then probably a month later
took my first ballet class.
I couldn't do anything anymore
like lifting my leg past 45 was really hard.
So then I put on pointe shoes for the first time.
That was extremely difficult as well.
(soft piano music)
I think finally in August I remember messaging Julie
and I was kind of like, I think I'm ready to come back.
(excited piano music)
- She's a really, very special, remarkable young woman
and I'm so proud to know her and
I can't think of a more perfect example
of courage and grace then Chiara.
- Cancer is one journey,
but after cancer is a whole other journey.
(excited piano music)
There's a whole other story that's about to happen.
(soft piano music)