BALTIMORE — It was one year ago from Valentine's Day that William Wingo was diagnosed with testicular cancer while in his final semester of his senior year at Stonehill College in Massachusetts.
He was forced to finish classes at home in Baltimore while receiving treatment.
Now cancer-free, the former Boy's Latin student partnered with several of his other classmates to start the nonprofit "Beneficial Pain."
The message is simple: pain is inevitable, so why not make it beneficial? He said that message really helped him during his treatment.
"I was supposed to be graduating college, enjoying that time with friends, getting ready to move on to that next step in life. I had to take a step back and say this is my reality now and how am I going to deal with this reality and that just helped me with my mental the whole time, and I feel like that had a big impact on me being able to beat that cancer," said William Wingo, Founder of Beneficial Pain. "Living here in Baltimore, people go through different hardships every day and just wanting them to realize how you deal with that hardship can impact that outcome it's going to have on your life."
"We just hopped on the bandwagon to offer that support not just to him, but to everybody who's going through something in life. Life hands you uncontrollable situations and you can’t necessarily pity yourself because if you pity yourself you’re gonna allow that pain or whatever you’re going through to take over your life instead of allowing it to push you of fuel you to become stronger," said friend Christopher Smith.
They've held community events and started a "Change the Pain" scholarship that awards six Maryland high school seniors $1,000 to go towards college.
"The scholarship is just a way for us to provide some type of funds to kids that have gone through a lot in the past but were able to fight through that," said Wingo.
"Give them the opportunity to succeed in the college room, getting a scholarship," said friend Blair Brooks.
The deadline to apply for a scholarship is April 1.
