15-year-old Oscar Chojnacki (left) was the guest speaker on Thursday evening for his mother Lynda. Lynda works in oncology at the Lipson Cancer Institute at Rochester Regional Health/UMMC.
“So, I really wanted to be here tonight because my mother was offered this last year at Pink Hatters, but she had to turn it down. She gets so nervous with public speaking. At the time that she was diagnosed, I was 10 years old. The world had just shut down from COVID. It was 2022. I really think that our story just needed to get out there. I think that what I have to offer and what I have to say could be really powerful to people because I was so young,” says Oscar Chojnacki, Guest Speaker.
Sometimes Oscar says he felt terrified.
“I didn’t know if I was going to have my mother next year. I hated it. It was horrible. I really had to be that rock. She was always there for me. My mother is my biggest inspiration, I just loved supporting her through everything, all the changes that she went through.”
Oscar says the situation made him grow up quickly.
“I really needed to mature a lot during it. I had to sit through my mother going through chemotherapy when I was 10 years old and it was heartbreaking. She lost her hair. She was weak, she couldn’t even stand up at times, but I was there for her, and I stayed with her the entire thing and now I get to share her story here and I’m so excited. She’s the best mother I could have ever asked for.”
The event included entertainment by Biggs Sound, basket raffles, Best Hat Awards, and a Dessert Dash. Associate Chief Operating Officer at UMMC, Sonja Gonyea was the Emcee. Sheema Chawla, MD, DipABLM was the speaker for Rochester Regional Health.
