Ashton Welborn
From childhood cancer patient to pediatric nurse Ashton Welborn’s mother knew something was wrong with her second-grader. When the alwayshungry little girl stopped eating and became pale and weak, she took her to the pediatrician. Blood work determined it was mono, but her doctor wanted a second look at the labs. “Your daughter has cancer,” she said — four words no parent ever wants to hear. The doctor told Ashton’s mother to take her straight to the emergency room at Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham. But she didn’t hear any of that. In a daze, she drove her little girl to their hometown E.R. in Tuscaloosa. Finally, on the road to the right hospital, 7-year-old Ashton, her mother and grandmother sang hymns and prayed. Once there, it was a blur of tests and blood work. Then a resident at Children’s of Alabama, Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, confirmed the diagnosis. Ashton had leukemia. She received her Mediport the following day and underwent two years of chemotherapy. “My mom called him Doogie Howser,” Ashton recalls. “I didn’t know who that was, but I guess he looked like the guy from the TV show. He always wore crazy bowties. He was a very fun doctor.” That was 2003. Now a nurse herself with the Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Ascension Sacred Heart in Pensacola, Ashton is now 17 years in remission. 8
Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation
When she was first accepted into the nursing program, one of Ashton’s clinical rotations was in the Studer Family Children’s Hospital. She saw a picture of a familiar face in the elevator — Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, now the Medical Director of Pediatric Oncology. While her family was in town to help her recover from surgery following a basketball injury, they set up a surprise visit at Dr. Schwartz’s clinic. “He didn’t recognize me. I am much taller, and I have hair now,” Ashton says. “But he recognized my mom and grandmother.” From that moment on, the young nurse updated the doctor who helped save her life at the end of every school year at Pensacola Christian College. When she graduated and began looking for a job, she never expected she’d have the chance to work alongside him. In Dr. Schwartz’s office, there is a small table lined with tiles, each with a tiny handprint. One reads: “Ashton, 8 years old.” On that table now sits a copy of a book she wrote in middle school about her cancer story and the role he played in it. “I see him on the floor now. It’s so neat to work with him,” she says. “That’s my doctor!” Growing up in and out of the hospital, Ashton was always intrigued by the medical field. Many of the friends she met in chemotherapy aren’t
