Courtney Ginn

My name is Courtney Ginn, I am 35 years old and I live in Greenwood, SC with my husband and our 3 children. We have been married for 12 wonderful years. We enjoy travelling, especially to the beach and to the mountains. I have been a nurse for the past 12 years and work at our local hospital. This dream of being a nurse actually began when I was diagnosed with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma at 15 years old. I was just able to experience the love and compassion that a nurse can bring during a person’s lowest and most vulnerable state, and I knew that was something I wanted to do for someone else.

See, my journey with cancer started as being treated for sinus infections for months that led to a CT scan that showed a mass the size of a golf ball in my sinus area. I was immediately sent for a biopsy that confirmed that I indeed had cancer. This form of cancer I was told had not been treated at Richland Memorial (where all my treatments were held) in the last 30 years. It was actually usually found in someone that smoked most of their life or in the Asian population. Which neither applied to me, so I guess you could say I was a rare case. I had 4 (5 day) continuous treatments of chemo and 40 radiation treatments. But after all that I was blessed to be told my cancer was gone and I have been in remission ever since. I have been able to live a successful and normal life and I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be nominated this year and to tell a little of my story.