Skip To Main Content

High Point University Athletics

High Point University

Colonels Schedule

Events and Results

Full Calendar

Events and Results

Full Calendar Calendar

Women's Cross Country Becca Ball

MY POINT: Olive Allen Leans on Perseverance in Cancer Diagnosis

HPU student-athlete back competing with cross country team

Women's Cross Country Becca Ball

MY POINT: Olive Allen Leans on Perseverance in Cancer Diagnosis

HPU student-athlete back competing with cross country team

HIGH POINT, N.C. — The summer of 2022 was coming to a close when High Point University women's cross country runner Olive Allen started feeling a tightness in her chest.

Initially, she thought it was due to stress and the heatwave that hit the United States that summer. However, while out for a long run, the Little Compton, Rhode Island native realized something was wrong and made the decision to go to the hospital. After which, Allen was diagnosed with essential thrombocythemia, a rare blood cancer.

Despite the diagnosis, the senior worked to stay healthy in order to continue competing, but as the 2022 cross country season drew to a close, Allen solemnly watched her teammates race to their sixth-consecutive championship while she cheered them on from the sidelines.

"I remember watching the conference meet with a heart rate monitor on and I was like, 'I really hope I'm here next year,' but I didn't really know for sure," Allen said. "It was definitely scary. I learned a lot from those feelings and emotions, a lot of self-advocacy I would say. And just embracing the moment and trying to be the best teammate I could be even if I wasn't running."

After a harrowing year of doctor appointments, hard lessons, and strength in the face of adversity, Allen will be racing for the Panthers at the upcoming Big South Conference Championship meet this Sunday, in hopes of assisting her team to claiming its seventh-consecutive championship.

The Diagnosis

Allen was about to start her senior year at HPU when she started feeling a tightness in her chest. She was home for summer break and out for a 13-mile run when she realized something was very wrong, and went to the hospital to get checked out. Allen ended up spending three days in the hospital, where the doctors found that her blood is five times thicker than normal. A couple weeks later, Allen received a call with a diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia.

According to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, essential thrombocythemia, or ET, is a rare blood cancer that causes bone marrow to produce an excessive amount of blood cells called platelets which makes the blood thicker and more difficult for the heart to pump it through the body. ET is caused by the DNA of a developing bone marrow stem cell mutating, leading to the uncontrollable overproduction of blood cells. ET does not shorten one's life expectancy, but it is important to treat and monitor the condition as blood clots may form within the blood vessels and cause a heart attack or stroke.  

Despite the grim diagnosis, Allen knew she couldn't give up running. Five days after her hospital visit, Allen continued running and training, but a month later she felt abdominal pain and went to get a cardiac workup. Doubt started to creep in and Allen started to worry as she didn't know if she would be able to continue running.

"I started to get abdominal pain, so I went to the hospital again just to check to make sure I didn't have any blood clots," Allen said. "Everything ended up being fine, but then my medical team here, who is amazing, they wanted to reevaluate everything, do a whole cardiac workup, all that. And then I was like I don't know what this is going to look like after this."

Unable to fathom the end of her running career, Allen spoke to her doctors and emphasized that she would do anything to continue running. Although apprehensive, her doctors did everything in their power to keep Allen running, including reaching out to other doctors and specialists for advice. After careful consideration, the doctors concluded that Allen could continue her running career as long as she promised to have active communication with her coaches and doctors about how she is feeling. 



17 Teams, One Family

Along with the support from her doctors, Allen also received lots of encouragement and support from her teammates and coaches. 

"The High Point family and my teammates really helped me through this," Allen said. "The four girls I lived with last year were my everything. They helped me through doctor appointments, one of them literally held a drill as one of my nurses drilled a tube into my back once. They'd bake me cookies when I was having a bad day and they just really helped me through those moments. And the team as a whole, they've just pushed me to beyond where I thought I'd be through my diagnosis and just me as a person and that's something that I don't think I would've gotten anywhere else, so I am so grateful for High Point for that. This coaching staff has just been like my second family. It gives me chills."

Along with holding drills and baking cookies, one of Allen's former teammates also helped her connect with a basketball player at Vanderbilt University who was also diagnosed with ET, but continued to compete at the Division I level. Allen reached out to the athlete, Enna Pehadzic, in order to better understand her condition. Allen reports that Pehadzic was very reassuring, and to this day, Allen occasionally reaches out to the now-professional basketball player to update her on how she's doing and catch up.

"It was really good to see another woman in the NCAA that has the same condition as me," Allen said. "There's only like 8,000 people in the United States with this condition and most of them are over 60 years old, so it was really nice and reassuring that someone else was doing it."

With her doctor's approval, Allen began training again and started treatment for ET. Initially, Allen took a pill form of chemo for treatment, but the side-effects burdened the student-athlete causing her to switch over to a weekly injection. 



2023 Season and Beyond

When Allen experiences flareups, she must halt training until given the all-clear from her doctors.

This season, Allen participated in the Elon Opener. During the race, Allen didn't feel well and found she was dehydrated, which makes blood thicker and harder to pump through the body. Her coach and friends advised her to go to the hospital for an IV, where she was monitored for elevated levels of troponin, a cardiac enzyme that is released into the bloodstream when the heart is overworked. Allen's flareup caused her to miss two meets this season; however, the student-athlete is grateful to her coach for giving her the opportunity to be here. 

"Coach Remy (Tamer) has been great," Allen said. "Me and him are really close, probably because of this. But he's really understanding, he gives me that tough love, which I like in a coach because I don't want someone to sit back and just feel bad for me and be like, 'Oh, you're tired today because you have this blood disease, that's OK.' I want him to be like, 'No, you have to go get after it.' And that's something that I really appreciate, because I work best that way. He actually has a friend that has ET, so that's just a good connection to have. He's just been very understanding. If I ever need anything, he's there for me. I'm really grateful that he gave me the opportunity to come back for a fifth year after everything that happened last year."

Whether she's on the sidelines or competing, Allen hopes to be the best teammate she can be to close out her time at HPU. The redshirt senior hopes to run well and score low for her team at the Big South Championships Sunday morning, in hopes of bringing home a seventh championship trophy. After graduation, Allen plans to continue running and training. She also hopes to spread her story in hopes to help future athletes diagnosed with ET realize that they, too, can continue to compete, similarly to how Pehadzic helped her. 

"Embrace it! Through adversity you gain a lot of strength, if you just lean into that and take the lessons that you'll get from it," Allen said. "There are going to be humbling moments and there will be times where you will say 'I'm 21, I'm 22 what is going on?' But you just have to say 'I can do this, I am strong, I will get through this.' I tell the other girls this a lot when they say 'Oh my gosh my life is crazy, I don't know what's going on.' Just sit back and look at it from farther away. We are living some people's dreams and that is something to always be grateful for."
 
#GoHPU
Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Olive Allen

Olive Allen

5' 2"
Redshirt Senior

Players Mentioned

Olive Allen

Olive Allen

5' 2"
Redshirt Senior