Perseverance Is The Only Word She Knows

            When you hear someone has cancer, you think one of two things:  Whoever has it must be going through a tough time or that they’re an incredibly strong person to deal with it.  Both of which are very true.  Cancer isn’t easy and neither is being able to beat it.

            Marjoriet Matute was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1999 when she was 17.  Over the course of a year she received an extensive and intense amount of chemotherapy and radiation, and lost her sense of taste because of it.  When we discussed what it was like to have cancer she made it clear that she didn’t let it get in the way of doing what she wanted.  She wasn’t going to let it interfere with living her life the way she thought it should be.  “At 17 you live that life that, you know, you’re the strongest thing, you know everything and you can’t tell us anything.  But when you’re told you can’t live and you can’t do something, now you’re going to do it and you’re going to do it to the best of your capability and you’re going to go really hard.”

            Because of the cancer and chemotherapy, her doctors told her she would never be able to have children even after it went into remission.  She had accepted that she would never be a mother, but then a miracle happened.  That miracle came September 2009 and August 2011 by the names of Devin and Tristan Matute-Gueche.

            She had promised to always give back to her community after her cancer went into remission, and now with two sons, she wanted to teach them to do the same.  In 2013 she started a nonprofit organization called Devin & Tristan Give Back (DTGB) where they try to inspire ordinary people to give back to their communities.  Since it started, Marjoriet has held a multitude of events and fundraisers to help give back to communities far and wide, covering a variety of issues—childhood obesity, AIDS, bullying, domestic violence etc.

            Between her busy schedule as a mom and philanthropist, she also takes time to write for TheHuffington Post and CNN.  “How do you go to college to be a writer?  You know, I didn’t graduate from college.  I wasn’t intentionally trying to be a writer; it kind of happened and I was successful at it.  Had I know with my track record that I was always successful in writing; maybe I would’ve paid attention to it.  But all through school…all the credits that I did take were all for writing.”  She enjoys writing and whenever a story pops up, she jumps at the chance to take it.  Since she’s started writing for Huffington Post she’s interviewed the likes of LL Cool J, Angela Simmons and Brian McKnight.

She didn’t let the curveballs life threw at her stop her from achieving the success she always knew she would have.  Marjoriet says, “Having cancer gives you a totally different sense of life—you live fearlessly, you take risks and you try everything.  You go hard, you go epic.”