It was a fall afternoon in Purcellville, a small town in northern Virginia, when Julie Willis heard the news.
Her father James asked her and her younger sister, Ava, to join him in the office of the family home. Julie was in the sixth grade at the time, Ava in fourth.
“I could really tell on my dad’s face that something was wrong the moment I went in the room, because usually my dad does not sit down in there to have a serious conversation,” the University of Virginia fourth-year student said.
Things had been unsettled in the Willis household. Weeks earlier, 12-year-old Julie had been sitting on the bus at the end of the school day, waiting to go home, when she realized her older sister, Sara, wasn’t there.
Sara, her father James, younger sister Ava and Julie Willis pose at a childhood cancer event. “Sara’s favorite animal was a turtle,” Julie said. “My dad was shaving his head, so we were all wearing shirts to support (him and Sara.)” (Contributed photo)
“When I got home, I found out that she had lost her vision while she was in class, and that was the first kind of sign that something was wrong,” she said.
A few weeks after that afternoon, in the family’s home office, Julie and Ava learned what was wrong. Sara had been diagnosed with a form of brain cancer, called bifocal germinoma. She was 14 years old, 2½ years older than Julie.
Sara went into remission for 2½ years until she relapsed and lost all the vision in her right eye. “She lost her life in 2018 at 18 years old,” Julie said.
Willis said Sara’s death had a profound impact on her and the rest of the family. “My sister overall, was just a very happy person,” Julie recalled. “Everyone would tell you she lights up a room, and she could make friends everywhere” – even in the grocery store, “just by complimenting someone’s earrings or just making conversation, because she was just so extroverted and friendly and kind.”
So when Julie was accepted to the University, she was determined to make a difference. “When I went to UVA, I knew I wanted to do something for the fight against cancer and that’s when I found Fight Cancer at UVA.”
