Recent Walnut Hills graduate Gianna Moore and her mother, Becky Whaley, will never forget Oct. 27, 2023. That was the day Moore was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor.
The diagnosis was somewhat of a relief, as it provided closure on why she experienced nearly two years of mysterious illnesses.
It was also the start of a journey that taught her to be true to herself, while she constantly found out more about who she is.
Her journey hasn’t been easy, especially in the last year. Her determination to not only beat cancer, but graduate on time, is what made her the recipient of The Enquirer’s Courage Award. Moore was recognized at the 2025 High School Sports Awards show at Princeton High School June 18.
Gianna Moore’s cancer diagnosis came after two years of unexplained sickness
Moore, who has always paid attention to her diet and physical health, began noticing that something was wrong during her freshman year.
It started with sporadic bouts of acid reflux. During her sophomore year, frequent vomiting caused her to miss school on a semi-regular basis.
Her sickness came to a head in December 2022. While visiting her grandparents’ farm in Fleming County, Kentucky, her symptoms became so severe that Whaley drove her two hours to Children’s Hospital. Doctors initially diagnosed her with functional nausea with IBS-type C, while also considering cyclic vomiting syndrome.
Even as her symptoms subsided, Moore struggled with soccer conditioning prior to her junior year.
“I kind of just thought I was out of shape. Things just felt harder, but I thought maybe I was just getting older,” Moore said.
“She was working just as hard, but no matter how hard she worked, it felt like she never got to the fitness level that she was used to being at,” Whaley said.
Moore has played soccer since she was 6 years old and has always been a high-level athlete. At one point, she was recruited to join a club team, which doesn’t happen very often. In her first tournament with her new team, she scored a goal from midfield on a kickoff.
As a sophomore, she played in 11 games and scored three goals. As a junior, she appeared in nine of the Eagles’ 18 contests.
In October 2023, a particularly bad episode of vomiting prompted Whaley to take Moore to Children’s Hospital in Liberty Township. When her doctors found something on one of her scans, they kept her overnight.
The next morning, they delivered the news, telling Whaley first so she could tell Moore.
“They pulled me out of the room and took me to a different room. She was asleep. When they pulled me out, I was like, ‘Oh God.’ I knew immediately,” Whaley said.
Moore had a fairly nonchalant reaction to hearing the life-altering words.
“I was just like, ‘Oh, wow. That’s a lot of news,” Moore said.
Cancer took a toll on Gianna Moore’s body
In the first month after her diagnosis, Moore underwent intense therapy designed to keep the tumor from metastasizing.
But she also dealt with side effects like nausea, vomiting and heightened blood glucose.
At various points in her treatment, Moore developed diabetes and Cushing syndrome.
In February 2024, she went back to the hospital with excessive swelling in her upper body. Her arms and hands were pink and splotchy. It was arguably the worst episode of sickness that she can remember.
“I could barely walk. I was wobbling and I couldn’t think. Everything was very slow,” Moore said. “One sentence would take me a minute or two to process.”
After recovering, she was eager to return to the field with her club team, but her doctors kept her sidelined because they didn’t want anything to happen to her if a ball hit her in the stomach.
She was also physically weak. Moore estimates that she was eating 6,000 calories per day, but she still lost 30 pounds.
Last summer, Whaley and Moore adopted a dog and named her Maple. When they met her, she weighed 13 pounds, but felt like 40 in Moore’s arms.
During Spring break, she vacationed in Cancun. She was able to attend her junior prom, even if she had to rely on her friends to help her up and down the stairs at Newport Aquarium.
“My doctors prioritized normalcy. They want you to feel the most normal you can while you’re going through everything,” Moore said.
Moore described the summer before her senior year as the toughest conditioning she’s ever gone through. She struggled to keep up because of treatments that made her gain weight while losing muscle mass, and barely made the varsity squad after completing the standard fitness test. She played in preseason scrimmages but not in the regular season.
“Senior year, it was hard because it’s always been a part of my life. Especially junior year, when I missed my club season, that sucked because I’d been playing club for so long,” Moore said.
After being in and out of the hospital, she was able to attend her senior night. The team and coaches wore wigs before the game to support Moore since she had lost a considerable amount of hair during her treatment.
“It was happy and sad. I was happy that all the girls were there and the girls who are younger than me who I had been mentoring since they were in eighth grade. It was good to see them play out there and I could tell they were all playing for me,” Moore said.
Gianna Moore ‘kicked butt’ in order to graduate on time
Throughout high school, Moore missed a considerable amount of class. During her junior and senior years, she worked closely with school counselor Tanya Ficklin.
“My goal was to have her graduate, for sure, but also make sure she was okay. As a school counselor, we focus on academics, socio-emotional, and college and career. When we have someone who is dealing with a situation that takes them out of school, you then have to think outside the box. How do we ensure they’re still educated and they’re still part of the community?” Tanya Ficklin said.
The social aspect was never a problem for Moore. Despite missing special events during her senior year, she was always surrounded by her soccer team. Ficklin was focused on her physical, mental and academic wellness. In final months of her high school career, Moore still had to complete assignments for her junior and senior English classes, two separate math classes, chemistry and geology.
To help Moore complete her course work, Ficklin tapped into Edgenuity, an online resource that Cincinnati Public Schools makes available to students in extraordinary circumstances. Moore was able to work on her own time, then message Ficklin when she was ready to progress to the next lesson.
Sometimes those messages would come at 10 p.m., or while Ficklin was at the grocery store or a personal function.
“She kicked butt,” Ficklin said. “Originally, we thought she was going to have to go into the summer to finish. She was determined not to. She was like, ‘Give me what I need. Allow me to make this happen. Allow me to be able to work at my pace and to continue to get it done’ and she did. All she needed was the opportunity,” Ficklin said.
On May 22, Moore walked across the stage at the University of Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Arena to receive her high school diploma.
“Being able to go in and say to our focus administrator, ‘She’s done. She’s graduating.’ and then to see her walk was like the cherry on top of the sundae,” Ficklin said.
Gianna Moore can see the light at the end of the tunnel
Growing up, Moore’s definition of strength aligned with her muscle tone. Over the last four years, the mental side became clearer as she began praying and reading daily affirmations.
She centered her college admission essay around her newfound definition of strength.
This fall, she will attend the University of Cincinnati to study psychology and also plans to play intramural soccer.
“She came home so excited about intramurals. She was like, ‘I didn’t realize, until I was seeing people out playing, how much I missed it. I need soccer in my life.'” Whaley said.
On Jan. 29 of this year, Moore had surgery to remove the tumors on her pancreas and lymph nodes. She recently underwent a series of scans to check on her recovering organs and they all “looked really good.” Her next and hopefully last step is to receive a liver transplant before the end of the year.
“I’m excited to not be in the hospital all the time and on so many medications,” Moore said.
Her experience over the last four years has also shifted her perspective and approach to future tribulations.
“It’s like an affirmation that everything is easier because I’ve gone through something that’s so hard,” Moore said.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Walnut Hills’ Gianna Moore is The Enquirer’s 2025 high school sports Courage Award winner
Reporting by Brendan Connelly, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
