Bissette Named 2018 Wilma Rudolph Honoree
TAMPA (May 15, 2018) – USF's
Meredith Bissette was named a 2018 Wilma Rudolph Award winner by the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals (N4A).
The five honorees will be recognized during the N4A Convention Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, June 26 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
The N4A Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award honors student-athletes who have overcome great personal, academic, and/or emotional odds to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics. They have persevered and made significant personal strides toward success.
In 2016, Bissette began her battle with cancer. A softball player at USF, Bissette had a baseball-sized tumor on her lower spine. It was a tumor that affects one in one million people each year. She went through radiation treatments, steroids and biopsies in an effort to prepare her body for an extensive, high-risk surgery. To the surprise of her team of doctors, the final biopsy before surgery revealed that the cancerous cells around her tumor were dead. In that instance, Bissette became a medical miracle - no doctor had ever seen such thing before.
This was a small victory for Bissette. While undergoing chemotherapy, she worked out with a trainer three days a week, rebuilding her strength - both physically and mentally - before she underwent additional surgeries.
In August, she underwent three surgeries, totaling over 20 hours in four days. The 14 days following were the hardest. She had to relearn how to walk, to sit up, to position herself; simple tasks became challenges. Despite the hardships, Bissette's determination had her out of rehab in just a miraculous two months.
She returned to USF, came back to practice with her teammates and was progressing well until she encountered an obstruction in her stomach resulting in the need for a nasogastric tube. Unfortunately, the tube ended up failing and she faced yet another surgery. This time, the procedure failed and doctors had to open her stomach to remove the obstruction. A surgery such as this required another seven months to recover. As if this wasn't enough for Bissette, she developed femoral head necrosis, meaning her body struggled to supply blood flow to her hips leading to a double hip surgery in her future. Through all these challenges and personal trials, Bissette's teammates, the USF community and the city of Tampa showed unwavering support for her. Bissette graduated this spring and will take a year off to gain some work experience before applying for PA school.
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