Pazit Rotman can look back today and say, "I did it!" *** After two months of treatment, the cancerous tumor vanished from her body, and she got back to a life of routine. *** In the course of the difficult treatments, there was an episode which she describes as "a ray of light within the terrible darkness I was in" - the Dream Trip to Orlando and Miami. *** "When you understand that life can be beautiful, you also understand that it's something worth fighting for," she says.
     "I can definitely serve as an example that it is possible to beat cancer. You have to believe, you have to be strong, you have to remain optimistic and let time take care of things. Nobody believed I would succeed in getting over what I had. They found an eight centimeter tumor, which is considered very serious. After only two months of treatment, the tumor vanished. The doctors were in shock and I, of course, was in seventh heaven. Hard to believe, but it's a fact".

The speaker is Pazit Rotman, 18 years old, a 12th grade student at the "Amal" High School in Nahariya, who got cancer in October 2002. A week earlier she had felt pain in her back, but no one attributed too much importance to it. The assessment was that she just had a stiff back. Pazit recalls, "The truth is that even when a strange lump appeared on my neck - that was during one of my classes at school - everyone, including the teacher, thought that it was just some swelling. That same day, I was hospitalized in the Nahariya Hospital, but even there, despite the examinations they conducted, they didn't know exactly what was happening to me. Everyone tried to calm me down and told me it was nothing. But I already had a bad feeling about it and told everyone that I thought I had cancer. The day they told me I had an eight centimeter cancerous tumor I will never forget for the rest of my life. I cried all the time. I was so scared, terrified. Everybody cried, even my grandma and grandpa, who were with me there, my Dad and his wife. The bad thoughts started going through my head all the time. I thought of the end, of death".
     Pazit was hospitalized at first at the Nahariya Hospital and was moved later to Rambam Hospital in Haifa, where she underwent very difficult treatments. After two months, following a routine check-up, the doctors told her [the good news] that the tumor had vanished completely. She was released from the hospital and returned to her routine. Once a week, Pazit goes to Rambam for a day-long treatment. Soon she is supposed to begin chemotherapy. "I'm optimistic about the future," she says with the candor that is so characteristic of her. "I know that I've succeeded in beating the cancer. I went through a rough, painful and frustrating time. It wasn't easy, and during the treatments I had more than one moment of crisis, when I thought that it would be better if I just didn't live any longer. Today I can look back and say, 'I did it. And that's a fact".

In everything that was bad, painful and frustrating, Pazit knew at that time that there was one episode, which she describes as "a ray of light within all of the horrible darkness I was in." She is referring, of course, to the two-week trip to Orlando and Miami together with a group of Israeli kids who have cancer, in the framework of the "Dream Trip" project of "Larger Than Life".
     "Maybe it's funny to tell, but I felt lucky that I have this disease, because of which I won this dreamy trip," she recalls with a smile. "I remember thinking to myself: finally something good has happened to me thanks to this disease".

Pazit can talk for hours and hours on end about those awesome and thrilling two weeks. Even though several months have passed since it took place - "You have no idea," as she describes it - she can reconstruct every place that she and her friends visited, every encounter they had and every event they took part in. "Beyond the fun I had, it was also something that reinforced in me the feeling that life is beautiful and worth fighting for," she says.
     Pazit didn't know her dream trip companions before they left, however their common fate - cancer - made them very close very fast. As she tells it, in the most natural way, cancer was the main topic of conversation among the kids. "On this trip I encountered, for the first time, kids who had recovered from the disease, and that gave me great hope," she says. "Altogether, unlike the harsh atmosphere that characterizes the oncology ward at the hospital, the trip took me out of the black pessimism that had accompanied me all the time. The new scenery, the magical sights, the pleasant atmosphere all made my soul feel good. After months of seeing everything black, like the end of the world, suddenly life returned to being beautiful. I went back to living again. Even when we talked about the disease among ourselves it was done with sarcasm and humor".

Pazit finds it hard to point out one thing that particularly impressed or moved her during the trip. "Everything was perfect," she says repeatedly. "It begins with the perfume and chocolate we got as gifts at the Duty Free Shop at the Ben-Gurion Airport and ends with the pampering and presents we were given on our last day, in New York. There were times I thought to myself, 'What did I do to deserve all of this?' You can't believe how much love, attention and tender-loving-care everyone smothered us with".
     Pazit expressed her great appreciation to "Larger Than Life" for granting her the Dream Trip in a letter she sent. In the letter she described her impressions of the trip: "...Orlando was fun - the parks, facilities, the fear of the rides and the smile after we had been courageous enough to ride on them. I felt like I was in a fairy tale. One thing I liked especially was the "Arabian Nights' show with horses... After Orlando we went to Miami where we saw nature reserves, we touched the animals and got to know the volunteers and donors of "Larger Than Life." All of them are amazing people and it was exciting to see how much they love us, want to help us and respect us for fighting our war. We made friends with their kids. I especially loved the cruise on the yacht, the speeches and the dancing. The words of Danny, Tino's son, who said that he would win the game for us, made my tears flow, and the dancing on the yacht gave me a different feeling, of getting away from my routine. Since I got sick I hadn't danced and it was nice seeing everyone dancing - even the ones with crutches and wheelchairs... Another moving moment was the meeting with [Rudolph] Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, who told us that he had cancer and was fighting like us..."
     And Pazit sums it up in her letter: "...Those were the best and most beautiful two weeks of my life. Two weeks of belonging, of being loved, optimistic, strong; of putting everything behind me and being who I am and learning to value myself and cope with the disease, especially the part with the hair; of smiling, despite the sores in my mouth and not being able to eat, despite the tiredness and having a bad cold. I came to have a good time - and I did".

Pazit says that the letter is a tiny drop in the sea of sensations and feelings that accompanied her throughout the trip. Today, when she looks back, she is sure that this dreamy trip had a significant effect on her recovery. She says, "When you see this wonderful world, these exciting places, and when you understand that life can be beautiful - you also understand that it's something worth fighting for. And this is the message I would like to convey to all kids who have cancer. Never give up! Never surrender! It's worth fighting because there is something to fight for. They must get it into their heads that this is a painful and exhausting episode, but once you get past it everything can be great. Therefore, the most important thing is to look ahead all the time and get past this difficult stage with as few fears and frustrations as possible. It can be done. I'm sure. It's a fact that I made it!" .

"Those were the best and most beautiful two weeks of my life. Two weeks of belonging, of being loved, optimistic, strong; of putting everything behind me and being who I am and learning to value myself and cope with the disease, especially the part with the hair".

"When you see this wonderful world, these exciting places, and when you understand that life can be beautiful - you also understand that it's something worth fighting for".