CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte math teacher is not letting her cancer diagnosis define what she is capable of.

Every morning, 30-year-old Robyn Hobson takes her dog, Rico, for a walk. Her furry friend helps distract her from the reality she lives in. She’s been taking chemotherapy medication for the last year as she battles stage four pancreatic cancer.

“I would be so nauseous sometimes I couldn't even sleep,” Hobson said. “I would be head over the trash can and throwing up constantly.”

What You Need To Know

  • Robyn Hobson is a math teacher from Charlotte

  • She was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer about a year ago

  • This story is part of a series on Stand up to Cancer

Hodson managed to continue to work in 2020 and the spring of 2021 because her math classes were online. For fall 2021, she had to take a leave of absence. 

“It was hard because work and school was something that I love to do,” Hobson said. “But, I had to focus on myself.”

She decided to make her own YouTube channel and document her accomplishments like hiking in Crowders Mountain State Park and snorkeling in Mexico.

“Whenever I am having a bad moment or something I just can’t get through, I just look at the video,” Hobson said, “I think, ah I was there having fun, I can make it.”

She also shares her words of encouragement even though her cancer isn’t gone quite yet.

“If anyone thinks they can’t make it, I am proof that they can,” Hobson said in an Instagram video. “I am here, I am living and you can do it too.”

Hobson says thanks to chemotherapy treatment, her cancer has shrunk enough to have surgery. The procedure is very risky and won’t remove all the cancer, but she hopes it’s a step in the right direction.

“Cancer is a love-hate relationship, but I'm never going to give up,” Hobson said.