{"id":318,"date":"2019-07-17T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wcsu.wpengine.com\/news-archives\/davidbalfore\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:18:09","slug":"davidbalfore","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/davidbalfore\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 Winning the battle against leukemia, student opts for nursing program at WCSU"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DANBURY, CONN. <\/strong>\u2014 As a high school freshman, David Balfore thought he had his future cinched up. After ending his football season with 23 touchdowns, the Berlin, Conn., native was looking toward athletic scholarships and a teaching career. But his plans were sidelined after facial paralysis, fever and headaches sent him to the hospital. <\/p>\n

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At 15 years old, Balfore was diagnosed with t-cell leukemia. <\/p>\n

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Balfore spent months undergoing rounds of treatment, including chemotherapy, to battle his illness at Hartford Children\u2019s Medical Center. What he remembers most amid the lost school days and months of debilitating treatment were the nurses who nurtured him back to health. It was then he decided to become a nurse.<\/p>\n

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\n \u201cI want to be able to help people like the nurses who helped me,\u201d said the 19-year-old WCSU pre-nursing major. After much research into universities and colleges in the region, Balfore concluded that Western offered the highest-quality education at the most affordable cost. \u201cI think Western\u2019s nursing program is the best program of all the schools I applied to. I can get the most here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Among one of the most popular majors, the nursing program has a close working relationship with Danbury Hospital, and WCSU nursing students have achieved near-perfect scores on the state licensing exam for more than four years.<\/p>\n

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\n Balfore lives on the WCSU campus and says he\u2019s met lots of friends and understanding professors. He still goes for monthly treatment for his illness but has been in remission since last fall. Balfore said he enjoys speaking with other patients at the Hartford hospital, who are mostly younger children. \u201cI tell them to always stay strong and that it\u2019s going to get better,\u201d he said. \u201cIt helps that I can relate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Balfore also participates in the annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life event in his hometown. In 2010, as a guest speaker, he shared his experience of having leukemia and told his listeners to never give up. <\/p>\n

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\n \u201cI would like to be an oncology nurse because I can relate and help those patients the most. But I would love to be a nurse in any field,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to be there for someone when they need it most.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England\u2019s best small private universities.<\/em><\/p>\n

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DANBURY, CONN. \u2014 As a high school freshman, David Balfore thought he had his future cinched up. After ending his football season with 23 touchdowns, the Berlin, Conn., native was looking toward athletic scholarships and a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-318","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}