Published: April 8, 2026
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
When Hannah McKinley opened her eyes one morning in 2017, nothing felt normal. She had been coughing a lot, but now she was gasping for air.
Hannah was young, seemingly healthy and busy raising a little boy who depended on her. Nothing in her life signaled that something catastrophic might be unfolding inside her body. But her instincts told her this shortness of breath wasn’t something she could push through. She sought medical care, but she never expected cancer.
“I was terrified,” Hannah said, recalling a moment in the doctor’s office. “I looked at my mom, and she was completely heartbroken.”
When Hannah met with Paul A. Tennant, M.D., head and neck surgical oncologist at Norton Cancer Institute, he delivered news that shattered the landscape of her world: Hannah had Stage 4 throat cancer. According to Hannah, she was the youngest patient Dr. Tennant had ever treated with such an advanced diagnosis.
Cancer was something she thought happened later in life — to someone older, someone with risk factors, someone else. Not a young mother with plans to build a future that included every milestone of her son’s childhood.
The shock was immense, but what followed was something stronger. Hannah made the conscious choice to fight.
The days that followed were hard — filled with procedures, specialists and conversations she never imagined having at her age. She had six straight weeks of chemotherapy.
But with each step, she held onto one thing with fierce determination: her little boy. Her son, who lives with autism, needed her. She was his steady place, his translator to the world, his comfort, his advocate.
Giving up was never an option.
Treatment wasn’t easy.
But slowly, Hannah began to see a shift. Her body responded to the treatment. She finished the treatment in six months.
“I was really shocked it went that quickly, I started feeling better,” Hannah said. “I was overwhelmed in a good way.”
Through all the treatment, Hannah had Dr. Tennant in her corner.
“His care was phenomenal,” Hannah said. “Without him, I don’t believe I would have survived this, mentally, physically, all of it.”
Seven years after being diagnosed with throat cancer, Hannah faced another health crisis in 2024. She was diagnosed with lymphedema in her upper airway, necessitating a tracheostomy tube to be inserted indefinitely.
Today, Hannah describes herself as someone living with a second chance. The greatest gift of her recovery is simple and profound: time. Time to parent. Time to heal. Time to plan a future she once feared might never come.
As she moves forward, Hannah does so with gratitude — for her care team that saved her, and most of all, for the chance to keep being the mother her son needs and deserves.