Taylor Goethals has had a busy year.
On July 18, Taylor left with her family to spend two weeks riding four-wheelers in the woods of Georgia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The rising Plant City High School sophomore also spent her summer volunteering as a leader at First United Methodist Church’s vacation Bible school, where she helped lead the first, second and third graders, and she visited family in Naples, where she paddle boarded on the beach and deer scouted in preparation for the upcoming hunting season.
For most people, paddle boarding and deer scouting, along with working at a camp, would be enough activity for a few months.
Taylor is not most people. The teenager was diagnosed for the second time with cancer one year ago. But she’s not letting it defeat her.
“People tell me I’m an adrenaline junkie,” Taylor said.
That might be an understatement. Earlier this year, the oldest of six siblings broke her knuckle after she flipped off the back of a four-wheeler.
She’s gone turkey hunting, golfing and attended Rock the Universe, a Christian music festival, at Universal Studios in Orlando.
In the past year, she’s met the country music stars from Rascal Flatts, walked toward a pack of coyotes and jumped out of an airplane.
Just as permanent as all the memories, Taylor got her first tattoo, along with her twin sister, Tori.
Her new tattoo is a reminder of her fight. On Taylor’s back shoulder is a cross with a yellow cancer ribbon wrapped around it, along with the words “hope” and “believe.”
Tori got a similar tattoo in the same spot on her shoulder. Her tattoo, also of a cancer ribbon, reads “Your battle is my battle, sissy.”
Although originally not in favor of her daughters getting inked, Lisa Rhodes eventually came around to the tattoo idea.
“She’s earned it, with what she’s gone through this year,” she said.
Five years ago, Taylor was first diagnosed with fibrosarcoma, which was found in her hand. She beat it and had been cancer-free for nearly three years before the cancer came back in 2014, this time in her lungs at stage four.
Taylor finished the last of six rounds of intense chemotherapy in October and then began alternative treatments. Her most recent scan was April 30. A large tumor had started to shrink, and one tumor was completely gone. Although there are still more, the April scans show Taylor as being stable.
“We’ve blown the doctors away,” Lisa Rhodes said of Taylor’s improvement. “We have definitely surprised them.”
The family lives life one day at a time, with a community of support rallying behind them.
“If it hadn’t been for our community, we’d be on the streets,” Jeremy Rhodes said.
Last year, the Lion’s Club hosted a car wash fundraiser that the family’s church helped put together.
Armbands and t-shirts were sold with Taylor’s mantra, “Fight like a girl.”
People the family didn’t even know paid for fun activities for Taylor, like Rock the Universe, while others sent well-wishes. Taylor was also sponsored by Pepin Distributing Inc. for the Bud Run, a non-profit charity for kids with terminal illnesses.
“It was just so amazing,” Lisa Rhodes said, who has returned to work since Taylor became stable. “We are getting life back to normal.”
Taylor tries to block out her cancer. The sports lover is focused on her next adventure. She hopes to go bungee jumping over the ocean head first — the way she tackles everything. She is also going to tryout for PCHS’ softball team when school starts in August.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com