When Tammi Keitsock crossed the commencement stage at Neumann University last Sunday, she wasn’t just collecting a master’s degree; she was completing a journey that had taken her through one of the most grueling challenges a person can face.
The Bucks County native from Perkasie earned her master’s degree in athletic training after battling Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a diagnosis that arrived without warning during Memorial Day weekend in 2023, according to 6abc reporter Caroline Goggin.
The signs had crept in quietly. Not long after graduating from Thomas Jefferson University in 2022, Keitsock began noticing unexplained bruising and a lingering fatigue that wouldn’t lift. Bloodwork later confirmed what she had feared.
What followed was relentless; chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant, long stretches in the hospital, and a recovery that tested every reserve she had. And yet, in the summer of 2024, she enrolled at Neumann and got to work.
“For the most part, she did everything everyone else did at the same pace everyone else did it,” said Assistant Dean Hubert Lee.
Then, in February 2025, the cancer came back. Rather than step away, Keitsock logged onto Zoom from her hospital bed and kept going, with Neumann faculty adapting alongside her every step of the way. Lee called her an inspiration to students and faculty alike.
In July 2025, she rang the bell after her final chemotherapy treatment, and this spring, she walked across the stage.
“It does get better — even though everyone says that. You have to keep looking at the finish line and you can get there,” Keitsock said.
Tammi’s story is one of grit, grace, and an unshakeable will to finish what she started. Read the full article from 6abc and follow her remarkable journey from diagnosis to diploma.
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