A Happy Anniversary

Tennis player Corina Morariu searched for the right word to describe today, the first anniversary of the day her world was shaken, the day she learned she had acute leukemia.

“We’re going to have a little celebration, I guess,” said Morariu, who was the world’s top-ranked women’s doubles player in 2000. “I don’t know if you want to call it a celebration. A Corina’s-still-around celebration. I just keep thinking back to what was happening to me last year. All the different things I went through, and the emotions are sort of creeping back.”

The more she thought about it, the more “celebration” sounded like the best word.

“It’s been a really hard year. I’ve gone through a lot. A celebration too, in looking forward,” she said. “Looking at all the positives, at all the things I’ve been able to overcome.”

Her father, Albin, is a doctor and was the personal neurologist of Tim Gullikson, who died of brain cancer in 1996. Albin reflected on his feelings of a year ago, walking into his daughter’s hospital room for the toughest moment of his life.

“For me, probably the most difficult thing I had to do was tell her the diagnosis,” he said. “I just debated if I should tell her, or should I have somebody else. Finally, I took the bull by the horns.” There was an outpouring of support for Morariu, one of the best-liked players on the tour. One visitor recalled how brave Morariu was in the most emotional moments, even making a gentle joke about losing her hair from chemotherapy treatments.

Morariu has been in remission, but she still must take oral chemotherapy every day for the next two years. She turned 24 in January and was able to hit tennis balls that month for about five minutes the first time back on the court.

“It was fun. But it was so hard for me, just physically,” she said. “It was an unusual feeling because I’ve played since I was 5 years old. When you do it so often, it becomes second nature. For me to be struggling so much to be able to do that was difficult. At the same time, it was exciting I was able to get out there and be outside.

“Now I’m enjoying seeing myself progress physically after what I’ve been through and after what my body has been through, the state I was in late November, early December. I got out of the hospital and I couldn’t walk 20 yards. Now I’m practicing four hours a day, running on the treadmill, doing all these things I took for granted before that I get excited about now.”

She plans to play World TeamTennis in July and could return to the tour in Southern California later that month, starting with doubles. Tennis can serve as a platform in her new ambition, raising awareness of blood-related cancers. Morariu recently signed as international sports ambassador for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

“I honestly feel that my particular kind of leukemia has a good prognosis, and that’s not the case with all kinds of leukemia,” she said. “The reason my prognosis is good is because there has been money put into research, and people have done all this work for them to develop a drug that works in my kind of leukemia.

“I feel like I owe my life to the people that have done that, given their time, their money and have tried to raise awareness. I’m just trying to ... do everything I can to increase the prognosis for every kind of leukemia, as well as eventually find a cure. That’s more important to me than playing.”