Childhood cancer survivor prepares for nursing school at WKU, gives back to the hospital where she sought treatment

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – A sophomore year WKU who overcame childhood kidney cancer, follows her dream of becoming a nurse.

She also uses her experience to raise money for the hospital that played such a big part in her health journey.

“I don’t have a lot of memories of that because I was so little and your brain likes to block out those kinds of things.” Beaver Dam’s Liv Miller talks about her battle with kidney cancer when she was just three years old. “They diagnosed me with stage three bilateral angioplasty Wilms tumor.”

“It’s normally completely in the kidneys, never inside, but it’s attached to and wrapped around organs,” Miller said.

She sought treatment at Norton’s Children’s Hospital in Louisville.

“Nine months of clinical chemo, nine surgeries, nine radiation treatments. I was in the hospital a lot,” she added.

It was during that time that she realized she wanted to get into the medical world. “My favorite nurse had cancer herself when he was a child and it gave us hope to see someone who had been through so much.”

Now Liv wants to offer that same hope and will start nursing school at WKU next month.

“She has been a fighter and a wonderful outgoing, encouraging young lady. She’s definitely come a long way and I’m so excited she wants to go into nursing.”

Dance Big Red has raised more than $400,000 for Norton Children’s since 2015. Liv is now a member of the executive committee for the fundraiser that gives back to the same hospital where she was treated.

“I was on the Family Relations Committee last year and I was like OK, I want to do more because I have such a story that can get people to come dance and make the kids money.”

For the first time in 2022, WKU’s 8th Annual Dance Big Red to Benefit Norton Children’s Hospital will be held at Houchens-LT Smith Stadium.

It is scheduled for April 1, from 6:00 PM to midnight.

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