Young TCS New York City Marathon runner proving how powerful cancer survivors can be

NEW YORK -- One young woman is running the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon for a big cause.

Hardee Bhavsar was inspired to run after she was left fighting for her life after going through chemo treatments in the peak of the COVID pandemic.

Now she is showing everyone just how far she has come. At just 20 years old, and in her sophomore year at Rutgers University, Bhavsar never expected to hear she had cancer.

"I had a lot of fevers, I mean, a lot of symptoms leading up to when I was diagnosed," Bhavsar said. "But I saw all of it was, you know, I was really stressed. I was in school, it was like winter and I'm like walking around to go to my classes."

She started noticing her symptoms in the beginning of 2020, but couldn't get an appointment for weeks because of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Eventually she got the call she never expected: a diagnosis of stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma.

It was a diagnosis that forced her into hospitals alone.

"I felt very isolated," she said. "I really felt like there was no one. I went to all my infusions by myself. My surgeries by myself, like radiation by myself."

She said it felt like she wouldn't have a future.

Bhavsar went through six months of chemo and radiation to beat the cancer. But with remission came a new problem.

"My last treatment, I had a countdown and I'm like, OK cool, I'm going to be so relieved when this is over," she said. "And it was the complete opposite. I had almost even more anxiety."

So that is when she turned to running as an outlet for her anxiety and soon she started to love the way it made her feel. She said those first few runs were tough and she barely made it down the block before she had to catch her breath.

But now, in honor of five years in remission, Bhavsar set a new goal for herself and is aiming to raise awareness for all young people going through their own fight against cancer.

"I'm part of the South Asian community and I also felt like there was a stigma in the community that like, speaking out or like having a sickness makes you weak," she said. "And because of that, I didn't see anything about it online."

She started a support group while still in school and is now running in support of the group Blood Cancer United.

And she's proving step by step just how powerful cancer survivors can be.

Bhavsar said she just started training in January and she can't wait to hug her parents when she crosses the finish line for the very first time.

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