Although according to the CDC, brain cancer is now the deadliest childhood cancer in the world, even ahead of leukemia, Thomas Sikkema, now 20, is a lucky survivor. At 17 Sikkema was diagnosed with a germ cell tumor. Told right away that the cancer was curable, he was immediately scheduled for a surgery, chemo, and radiation.

Today, Sikkema has decided to live the life that was saved by helping others through some of the hardest days he had experienced himself. Sikkema is now a nursing student at Grand Valley State University, working as a pediatric hematology oncology nurse tech in the same hospital he was once a patient.

Sikkema states, "Everything does happen for a reason, and luckily I made it out, and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing now."

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