One Lenka started working toward in high school, when she shadowed oncologists at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

She entered Princeton University at just 17 years old, full of aspiration and the determination to make something extraordinary of it.  

One week into her freshman year, she was supposed to be settling into college life. Instead, she was battling a cough that wouldn’t go away. 

“I didn’t think anything of it at first,” she remembered. “After weeks of still having it and multiple misdiagnoses, I finally had an X-ray. That’s when they saw a mass between my lungs.” 

The next few days moved quickly: CT scans, referrals, specialists. A diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 

“It was one of those scary, sudden things,” she says. “In a strange way, I was relieved. We finally knew what it was. Thankfully, I was able to reach out to my mentors at Legacy Emanuel for guidance.” 

College paused almost as quickly as it had begun. Instead of lecture halls, she walked her old hospital halls, this time as a patient. Her world became chemotherapy and treatment schedules. Until she was offered a life-changing wish.  

At 17, Lenka debated between wishing for a trip or something tangible. In the end, she chose a 15-foot sea kayak. 

“I thought about a trip,” she says. “But a kayak felt more fun for a longer time. It felt like a lasting experience generator.” 

Her grandparents had always loved canoeing. She’d grown up near water and loved the independence it offered. 

More than the kayak itself, decades later she remembers the joy of the process. In the middle of chemo, when so much felt out of her control, she could choose the details of something entirely hers. 

“I researched everything. The color, the paddles, the life jacket, even down to the dry suit. It gave me something to focus on and be distracted with. That part was really fun.” 

Her wish reveal took place at the Multnomah Athletic Club - home to one of Portland’s only Olympic-sized pools large enough to launch a true sea kayak indoors. 

“I didn’t know it was happening that day. It was a total surprise,” she said.  

She wasted no time jumping in, paddling laps in her kayak, sharing turns with friends and family, and celebrating the evening together.  

“I remember feeling really happy.” 

In the years that followed, she paddled rivers, explored quiet bays on the Oregon coast, and kayaked alongside a close friend also going through chemotherapy. 

“We have pictures of us out there together,” she says. “It was a special time.” 

The kayak has traveled as far as the Canadian Rockies and her parents still keep it at their family home. 

“It really was what I hoped,” she says. “A lasting experience generator.” 

After returning to Princeton, Lenka completed her undergraduate degree and went on to Harvard Medical School. She conducted research in Uganda, worked through the peak of COVID in a Boston ICU, and began her pediatric surgery fellowship in Iowa. 

“Pediatric surgery is a little bit of everything. We operate on tiny preemies. We take out cancers. We fix congenital defects.” 

“I like the tactile, doing something aspect of surgery. It’s a fun and rewarding field,” she added. 

As a surgeon, Lenka believes in the power of medicine, but also in the mind-body connection. 

“Emotional strength matters,” she says. “Some people just seem to have the resilience that can carry them through hard times, and I think that wishes can help with that. Having something to look forward to, it helps you push through treatment.” 

For Lenka, the wish experience gave her focus amid uncertainty. 

“It was a really nice distraction. It took me out of the cancer world. It gave me something that didn’t rely on everyone else around me.” 

After a 12-hour shift at work, Dr. Lenka Ilcisin goes home to her husband and one-year-old daughter. She knits. She runs. She experiments with a sourdough starter. Some days, she works even longer hours to remove a cancerous tumor from a child. On the day of this interview, she had done just that. 

Nearly 18 years after chemotherapy interrupted her first week of college, she is the surgeon she always dreamed she would be.  

The one delivering hope to kids just like her. 

“I just want to say, to other wish kids right now; you’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think,” says Lenka. “That’s one of my favorite quotes from Winnie-the-Pooh.”