I’m Still Standing
How facing cancer twice strengthened a young woman’s faith and resilience.
By Nicole Laszlo
Amanda Paul learned that a cancer journey starts long before you ever reach a diagnosis. She fought to be heard, to be believed, and to have her symptoms finally taken seriously.
And as hard as her journey has been, it has brought about many positives, including strengthening her faith and building resilience.
Here is her story.
Unanswered questions
As a junior in high school, Amanda began experiencing persistent itching and a fever that lasted 37 days. These abnormal symptoms led her to search for a diagnosis.
Doctors continued to give dismissive answers, leading her to do her own research. She found a blog from a girl with similar symptoms who shared her story of battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Still, her medical team assured her it was not cancer, but likely allergies or an autoimmune disease.
As her symptoms continued, Amanda visited multiple doctors and hospitals, eventually discovering she had what she already suspected: Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
As she moved through her final year of high school, her big plans for the end of senior year were cut short as a new, unwanted priority took away from everything else.
She missed the last two weeks of her junior year, and when she began her senior year, she could manage only half days and frequent absences.
A second fight
After enduring treatment and reaching remission, Amanda experienced three cancer-free years, beginning her first two years at Baylor University.
It wasn’t until her junior year that she noticed alarming weight loss, and her intuition led her to seek a cancer scan to ease her worry.
When her scan revealed her cancer was back, she learned she would need to fight again. “That was really hard and was definitely the lowest point I was at mentally. I was just very upset, very hopeless,” Amanda said.
Just months earlier, she had been performing with her sorority sisters in Baylor University Sing, a large, Broadway-style singing and dancing competition, and now needed a walker just to move.
The contrast between her life before cancer and her reality now felt overwhelming.
Finding hope, strength, and peace
Through some of her darkest moments, Amanda has found hope through her relationship with God.
She trusted Jesus as her Savior in high school through attending Young Life, a ministry for young adults. She found new life and hope she had never experienced before. It was a security that she would lean on, especially as she faced cancer not just once, but twice.
She also found strength through community, by sharing her story on social media, offering hope to those in similar situations. Her friendships at Baylor and the ones online helped her feel the Lord’s love through the people he has surrounded her with.
“I see him through all my friendships,” Amanda said. “Meeting some incredible people along the way and blessing me with friends from coast to coast and even abroad…”
“I have an album on my phone, and it’s just screenshots of texts that I’ve gotten from people telling me how much my page has helped them,” she said. “A lot of people have told me that it’s helped them embrace losing their hair. It’s helped them find joy in things.”
Community has also helped her deal with other challenges from cancer, including anger.
View this post on Instagram
Dealing with anger
Many people who face cancer, whether you have faith or not, struggle with anger. It’s something that Amanda felt, too.
“The first diagnosis brought me a lot closer to the Lord, in a lot of different ways,” she says. “My relationship with the Lord took a much harder hit the second time around, and there was a period of time that I was very angry. Still am.”
And while she would have never chosen to face cancer, she can’t deny how it has built hope and resilience in her life. “I ultimately knew that this was a part of his plan and that there is a reason I went through this,” she said.
One experience helped bring this to the surface.
Choosing resilience
During one of the most challenging seasons of her treatment, Amanda was sitting in a musical therapy session when she heard a familiar song: “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John.
“There I was in the hospital getting my stem cell transplant, literally having the worst time of my whole life, and they played that song,” she said. “Instant tears, I was sobbing.”
Everyone else in the session, much older than Amanda, heard an upbeat song of hope from their time. For her, it was a song in her Sing act that she would miss in the fall at Baylor University because of her diagnosis.
The moment sparked something new in her. “I was like, I need to get better so that I can be in Pigskin and I can be in the act finally,” she said. “And so, since then, my goal has been to learn how to walk again. I need to gain my strength back.”
Full circle moment
After missing a whole semester of college, that determination paid off. Amanda danced on stage during the 2025 Fall Pigskin performance to the song “I’m Still Standing”—the same song she cried to just months earlier while unable to walk in the hospital.
She showed her resilience not only by fighting cancer, but also by regaining the strength to walk again and getting her body back to the point where she could perform this 7-minute act, with full dance choreography and running from one dance to another, all while singing along to the music.
When she first heard the song in the therapy session, it caused her pain, but now it has become a moment of triumph. Now she was the one still standing.
Amanda’s advice for others
As she reflects on her journey, Amanda encourages people to document their cancer experience, especially through pictures. Due to the amount of drugs and side effects that cause more sickness, she said she barely remembers her hardest days.
“Now I’m able to look back on those pictures and videos and see how awful that was, but now I’m able to see how far I’ve come from,” Amanda said.
She also says that sharing your story can have many positive effects, especially helping connect you with others.
Even as Amanda finishes her treatment, she has had the opportunity to speak at events in Washington, D.C., connect with cancer nonprofits, and continue sharing her journey and connecting with people on social media.
Her perspective on life has shifted as well.
“Look for the good. When you focus on what is going on rather than what God is doing and how he is working through tough seasons, He will become more evident,” Amanda said.
Conclusion
Amanda is still standing—and now she is helping others do the same. After finishing treatment and ringing the bell this past February, she plans to graduate from college and continue sharing her story.
Amanda recently announced she is writing a book about her journey. What once felt like an ending has become a beginning, as she uses her story to point others toward the same hope, strength, and peace that carried her through.
For more about how to begin a relationship with God, see Knowing God Personally.
For more help on your journey, see Find Hope Now.
I have a question or comment
How to find God’s hope, strength and peace
