“While living with cancer, I wrote my first book as a love letter to my students. I wanted to tell them that even when times get hard, you can’t give up.”

DR. LIZ CAESAR’S STORY

Life is never easy.

Everybody, no matter who you are, faces obstacles. I’ve faced many – one of which being that I did not learn to read until I was six years old.

Not being able to read delayed my development and set up many obstacles. But I did not give up. I worked hard. I leaned on my teachers, my knowledge, and the tools around me to learn to read.

Today, I hold four degrees, and I’ve dedicated my life to equipping children, especially those who are underprivileged, with the knowledge and resources they need to read and succeed in life.

When I was diagnosed with colon cancer at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to take time away from teaching at my school. As a result, some of my students started to fall behind on their reading.

So, I started a YouTube channel and set up a dedicated time during my treatment to read with my students. I read them all sorts of stories, including children’s books about cancer so they could better understand the disease. Eventually, I realized I wanted to tell my students more about my own story with cancer. I decided to write a book about my experience and how their love and the community’s support helped me get through challenging times.

Since then, I’ve written six children’s books, and I’ve found that writing is very therapeutic for me. While each book touches on different topics, all of them emphasize perseverance—my goal is to help show my students they can overcome whatever comes their way.

While cancer is not a challenge that I thought I would face in my life, I want to overcome it for my students. I want to teach them that when you face a barrier, you need to approach it head-on and work hard with the tools at your disposal to build a bridge and move past it.