No Tears for Hampton's Jerica Jenkins in Fight With Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Filed under: Women's Basketball

When doctors told Hampton point guard Jerica Jenkins that she had cancer, she cried for a long time that April day.

It's an understandable reaction, even more so for a high school freshman, which she was at the time of the diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

That day ended, and, so too did Jenkins' tears, as it's coming up on seven years since that day, and she hasn't wasted any water on her cancer.

"I was shocked," said Jenkins, a 5-foot-4 junior from Lancaster, Tex. "I didn't believe it. I was 14. I was like, 'There's no way I have cancer.' I just couldn't believe it. I cried right then. Then, I realized that I had to deal with it and move on."

There were enough tears to go around that first day when Jenkins got the diagnosis two days after a biopsy. She and her mother cried and prayed, and then got after beating Hodgkin's, a lymphoma with a relatively high treatment rate, if detected early.

Natalie Imbruglia Patricia Velásquez Jennifer Morrison Adrianne Palicki Amanda Righetti