Hannah Adams’ journey from childhood cancer to UA Homecoming Queen

With a comfortable 13-0 halftime lead over the Missouri Tigers, the tens of thousands of Crimson Tide fans packed into Bryant-Denny Stadium on October 26 were in understandably good spirits. Still, one fan’s excitement stood head and shoulders above the rest. 

Hannah Adams, the University of Alabama’s newly named Homecoming Queen was about to be crowned, the culmination of a laundry list of festivities that dominated the Tuscaloosa social scene in the week leading up to game day. 

The night prior, at the traditional pep rally on the steps of Gorgas Library, Adams was announced as the winner of that Tuesday’s Homecoming Queen election, and, the next morning, thousands of fans flocked to see her ride down University Boulevard in UA’s homecoming parade. 

Remembering the parade in a phone interview with Yellowhammer News, Adams said, “It was one of the most special moments and unforgettable times driving down University Boulevard and looking out to see little kids waving at me, Alabama fans of all ages just so excited for the festivities of homecoming, and finding so many of my friends and family in the crowd.” 

A few hours later, as Adams, who has competed in the Miss Alabama pageant three times and will return for a fourth run this coming summer, walked out onto the recently christened Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, she looked up to see the 100,000 fans cheering her on. 

RELATED: Cancer survivor Hannah Adams elected 2024 Homecoming Queen at The University of Alabama

“I saw so many people, so many fans, just out there supporting me and the University, and then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw my whole sorority, Alpha Gam, with fans that said ‘AGD Loves our Queen,’ all my best friends cheering. It was such an amazing way to cap off my Senior year at Alabama, and it’s something that I’ll never forget,” Adams said. 

With all of her crowns, titles, evening gowns, and photo shoots, it wouldn’t be surprising for one to think Hannah Adams leads a charmed life, but it hasn’t always been this glamorous. 

At five years old, just two weeks after graduating from kindergarten, Adams was preparing for ballet class when her mother noticed what she describes as a “slight bulge” in the side of her stomach. When she woke up with a fever later that night, Adams’ parents decided to take her to see her pediatrician the following day. 

After blood work and scans, the bulge was dismissed as a cyst. However, after further testing, Adams was diagnosed with stage-three Wilms tumor kidney cancer, meaning a tumor the size of a softball was growing around her left kidney. Within a week, the dance-recital-and-playdate-filled life of a typical little girl faded into days of chemotherapy treatments and blood transfusions.

In the following months, Adams lost all of her hair, up to and including her eyelashes. 

“I think one of the most difficult aspects of it was, as a young child, being faced with knowing that you’re sick and not knowing what tomorrow holds,” Adams said in a sit-down interview with Yellowhammer News. 

“I look back on that moment, and I really don’t remember life before cancer because I was so young,” Adams continued. 

In August 2009, after scans showed her cancer spreading further, Adams’ parents, Sean and Lori, signed off on a thirteen-hour surgery that would remove parts of her spleen, stomach, and diaphragm, as well as her left kidney and the tumor growing around.

“We were shocked and scared. Our first reaction was, ‘Why is this happening to our child?’” Sean and Lori Adams told Yellowhammer News. “We just prayed that God would lead us to the very best doctors and that He would heal Hannah.” 

Those prayers began to be answered when, after the operation started, the surgeons realized that their scans were wrong and that they would only need to remove a nickel-sized portion of Adams’ diaphragm, as well as the kidney and tumor. 

“That was my first moment of seeing that God really does do miracles and answers prayers because, if all of those other organs would’ve had to have been removed, I would be living a very different life right now, health-wise,” Adams said. 

After months of recovery, radiation, and chemotherapy, Adams was declared cancer-free in November 2009.

Almost immediately, Adams became an advocate for other children who found themselves in circumstances similar to her own. 

“At eight years old, I got involved with the American Cancer Society Relay For Life program just by selling lemonade on the side of the road. I was eight, and my little sister, Hailey, was five, and we would ask people, ‘Hey, can you help us fundraise for cancer research?’” Granted, I will say, we got like $20 for lemonade cups,” Adams said, laughingly. 

From that early entrance into advocacy, Adams’ influence has only grown. 

In March 2016, at age twelve, Adams was selected as a National Youth Ambassador for Hyundai Motor America’s nonprofit Hyundai Hope On Wheels (HHOW), which focuses on finding a cure for childhood cancer. Since its founding in 1998, HHOW has awarded more than $250 million in grants to fund childhood cancer research. 

Over the next two years, Adams traveled the United States, visiting forty-two hospitals in thirty-six states, to give away over $30 million in research grants from the nonprofit. Along the way, Adams says, she learned the impact she could have simply by telling her story. 

“I’ll never forget, I was at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. I was thirteen years old, and I had just finished sharing my story at one of these grant recipient events, and a little girl named Riley got up to share her story,” Adams remembered. 

“She’s telling us how she’d been faced with cancer, and that this girl named Hannah had inspired her throughout her story. She’s saying, ‘Hannah’s a dancer like me. Hannah’s an older sister like me,’ and, at first, I didn’t realize that she was talking about me — that my story had encouraged her and told her, ‘Hey, I relate to what you’re going through,’” Adams continued. 

That little girl was Riley Marshall, who, at nine years old, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. After two years of chemotherapy treatment, Marshall reached remission and, like Adams, began to do speaking engagements to share her story. 

Along with awarding research grants from Hyundai, Adams learned how to advocate for federal funding for childhood cancer research. 

“I started advocating on Capitol Hill at twelve years old. I’ve gone over 150 times now to meet with different offices, and, since that moment at twelve years old, we’ve been able to pass countless pieces of federal legislation that have allowed for more drug therapies, have increased research funding, and have gotten rid of red-tape for treatment. And, it’s really been grassroots efforts. It’s kids who have a connection with childhood cancer walking into these federal congressional offices and simply sharing their stories,” Adams said. 

Although she started as one of those kids, Adams has grown in her skill and knowledge enough to be able to lead those meetings. 

“As an older person now, I have the stats and the data to back it up. There are no adults involved in the room, so it’s a really unique experience, and I think that’s why the childhood cancer community has been so effective.” 

On the state level, Adams works with the American Childhood Cancer Organization as a Student Advocacy Coordinator. To date, Adams says, the organization has been able to pass legislation in seven states, equaling nearly $100 million in state research funding. She hopes that her advocacy will eventually help lead Alabama to make investments in childhood cancer research. 

In 2019, Adams took the next step in her work when she founded her own 501(c)(3) nonprofit, H.U.G.S. 4 Childhood Cancer — H.U.G.S. stands for “Helping U Get Stronger.” H.U.G.S. has three primary focuses that reflect Adams’ own journey: legislative awareness, family support, and community awareness. In addition to working with state, federal, and local governments to increase awareness, H.U.G.S. offers care packages for kids who are fighting cancer and their families and has even coordinated with Retirement Systems of Alabama to have their buildings in Montgomery and Mobile illuminated in gold in September in recognition of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. 

One could be forgiven for thinking that all of her advocacy, coupled with being a full-time student at the University of Alabama who is very involved in campus life, fills Adams’ schedule to the brim. To know Hannah Adams, though, is to know that the word “busy” couldn’t begin to describe her day-to-day life. 

At fourteen years old, Adams got involved with the Miss America Organization. At the time Adams and her family were living in Florida, and, on a whim, she decided to enter a county fair pageant. When she unexpectedly won, she qualified to go to Miss Florida’s Teen, the division of the Miss Florida pageant for young women between thirteen and eighteen. 

Armed with a $100 evening gown and incredibly limited pageant experience, Adams says she learned the value of authenticity when she finished as the first runner-up. 

“I think what stood out that year, and something I’ve tried to carry with me, is authenticity and just knowing how to relate to people from so many different backgrounds. My service work is not something I chose for a pageant. It’s just my life, and it’s something that I’m going to continue regardless of the outcome of a pageant.” 

When she returned to the Miss Florida’s Teen pageant the next year, she brought home the crown and, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, held onto it for two years. Adams went on to win the community service award at the Miss America’s Teen pageant. 

After moving to Alabama in the early days of the pandemic, Adams began competing for the Miss Alabama crown in 2022. 

In her first year, Adams made the top twelve, followed by third runner-up and the Community Service and Evening Gown awards in her second year. In the 2024 competition, she placed fourth runner-up and won the Community Service Award again. 

Adams will compete once again next summer as Miss Phenix City. 

“I see the role of Miss Alabama as being a human connector and public servant to the state. At the end of the day, this job has nothing to do with me — it’s about seeing people, making them feel known, and making them feel as though they could pursue their Miss America-sized dream.” 

After coming up short in all of her previous runs for Miss Alabama, one might think that Adams would begin to feel discouraged. Surprisingly, though, failure is something she is oddly comfortable talking about. 

“Regardless of whether you win the crown or not, you can always walk away with a newfound experience and a newfound discovery, so that’s what I take away each year,” Adams said. 

Following her recent win as the 2024 University of Alabama Homecoming Queen, Adams is now focused on becoming Miss Alabama.

“I’m living every single day this year as if I’m already Miss Alabama, whether it’s working out every day, doing my talent, going to community events, or coming up with plans as Miss Alabama,” she said. 

“It’s my dream job because you’re able to serve the state in so many capacities and then go and represent it at Miss America, and I wouldn’t want to represent any other state but Alabama there.” 

Despite all of her accomplishments, Adams makes it clear that those titles and roles are not what defines her. 

“I think, so often, we let the world place labels on ourselves whether it’s, ‘Oh, you’re the childhood cancer advocate,’ or, ‘You’re the Miss Alabama girl,’ or, ‘You do SGA.’ It puts so much pressure on ourselves, so it’s taking a step back and saying, ‘Yes, I’m grateful for these opportunities, but that’s not what defines Hannah,’” Adams said. 

“At the end of the day, I strive to be someone who’s kind and hardworking, who loves the Lord, who’s a friend to all,” she continued. “That’s what I want to be defined as — the way the Lord identifies and defines me, not by the external factors of the world because those things are ever-changing, but those traits that I listed can stick with me for the rest of my life.” 

Riley McArdle is a contributor for Yellowhammer News. He currently serves as Chairman of The University of Alabama College Republicans and Vice Chairman of the College Republican Federation of Alabama. You can contact him at [email protected].