Everyone looks forward to ringing in the New Year, but Anna Galofaro will have special reason to celebrate the arrival of 2008: This June will mark her fifth cancer-free year.

Anna was a 16-year-old junior in high school when she became increasingly tired and began sleeping more than normal. Then, she recalls, “I found a lump on my neck about the size of a cotton ball.” Her mother, a nurse, suspected what was wrong and took Anna to the doctor the very next day. The diagnosis: Hodgkin Disease, a lymphoma that centers on lymph nodes in the neck, underarm or groin. It’s most common in people between the ages of 15-40 and in those over 55.

Following surgery, Anna underwent an eight-month series of chemotherapy treatments that ended in June 2003. Things didn’t always go smoothly; along the way, she had to be hospitalized twice. She kept going, she says, because “I have a really great support system in my family, especially my mother. She’s been there every step of the way, never showing that she was scared, even though I know she was. She went to every one of my appointments with me and was there for me when I was sick.”

Now 21, Anna graduated from Trocaire College in Buffalo last year and is preparing to take her board exams to become a licensed massage therapist. While earning her degree, she gained clinical experience at Roswell Park, working with patients in the Radiation Medicine Department. Patients undergoing radiation treatments “are very sore and tired,” Anna explains. Massage therapy “helps them become comfortable and relaxed; for 15 minutes, they don’t have to worry about anything. It was very rewarding for me, and it solidified the fact that this is what I want to do. They feel so much better when they get off the massage chair.”

Reflecting on that experience, Anna says it’s one illustration of the need “to see the silver lining of things.”

“I’ve met so many great people through Roswell. I had to grow up really quickly, and I think it made me a better person.”

Her message of hope for the holidays: “I thought when I got my diagnosis that it was going to be the worst thing in my entire life. Actually, since I’ve been cancer-free, it has turned out to be one of the best and worst things that’s ever happened to me. When you go through something like this, it makes you a stronger person.”