Hi, my name is Thaison (pronounce like “Tyson” but spelled in a much cooler way) and I’m a student at the University of Texas. Hook ‘em horns! I enjoy all the little things in life. To me, it’s the little things that count. Those days when you are having a great time with family and friends and you look back over your day only to realize, you didn’t do that much….but you still had a blast! Those are the best. Oh and of course, I enjoy long walks along the beach (specifically during sunrise or sunset).

But onto the biography…I was born and raised in Austin, TX. I moved once my whole life and that was about a mile down the street. I have two younger brothers, Laison and Lamson (yes, all the boys’ names end in “son”) and an older sister Lananh. Oddly enough, all their names start with an “L” and my name is the only one that doesn’t. My best friend asked me earlier this year, “Do you feel left out because all your siblings’ names start with an L and yours doesn’t?” And the answer is…NO…I don’t, if anything I feel special!

I had a complicated switch of schools over the years, I went to 6th grade one year and then applied for Kealing Junior High and went there for 7th and 8th grade – attending their science and math academy. For high school, instead of going to my normal school, I decided to apply to another science and math academy, which had a change of heart the first year and became a “Liberal Arts and Science Academy”, A.K.A. LASA. We were the nerd-school of Austin. Our school robotics team beat a team of N.A.S.A. engineers. I know, impressive!

My parents own a small little chain of Vietnamese restaurants in Austin called Pho Thaison (and no it’s not really named after me. I’m named after my parents, so in turn the restaurant’s named after them too…but…I like to tell people it is named after me.). So I’ve been around the restaurant business my whole life and have been helping out since I was thirteen.

I’m also an avid member of the UT Handball team. So technically I can tell people I’m a UT athlete, but when they find out I play “handball” they’ll most likely laugh at me or ask me what handball is…

I learned about Texas 4000 just earlier this year and decided that it would really help me make a difference in the cancer community. Having lost a family member from cancer and seeing so many friends and family being affected by it, I hope to make a difference so that my family knows that there are people out there fighting against this disease. Hopefully, sometime down the future, no person will ever have to go through the experience of losing a loved on to cancer.

Having been through the emotional turmoil of having a family member diagnosed with lung cancer and being by their side from treatment to treatment, I have really learned how cancer affects lives. Not only does the person who’s diagnosed with cancer goes through a rough road, so do all of their close family and friends. My uncle passed away and left this world with two young children still growing day by day. It’s hard to see any child grow up without a father, much rather with only one parent. It’s hard to see good people punished with this horrifying disease.

Everything my uncle went through and everything I went through with him was an emotionally scarring event. I’ve never been shaken up so much by anything in my whole entire life. Having been through what it’s like to have an immediate family member fight cancer and pass away, gives me the motivation to make a difference. Although my may have seemed to lost the physical fight against cancer, his psychological fight against cancer has been embedded in me. He has motivated me to do as much as I can to help find a cure for cancer. So I will do everything in my power and anything I get the chance to do to know that I’m helping the cause. That I am helping a child somewhere keep their parents. That I am helping a family keep an uncle, an aunt, a father, a mother...

As long as there are people who never give up the fight, in time, we will prevail.