A lot can happen in five years. Just ask Molly Oldham.

When she first took to the Nationwide Arena ice on Nov. 16, 2019, she was an 18-year-old whose life had been put temporarily on hold.

Diagnosed with cancer – anaplastic ependymoma, when a tennis-ball sized tumor was found on her brain after months of headaches and other symptoms – just three months earlier, Oldham brought down the house before that night’s Blue Jackets Hockey Fights Cancer game with a beautiful version of The Star-Spangled Banner.

Nearly half a decade to the day, she’ll return to perform the anthem again tomorrow night for this year’s Hockey Fights Cancer game, joining fellow cancer survivors and CBJ anthem performers Lila Urbanic and Aria Tarantine.

In the meantime, Oldham has experienced plenty of joy and pain – including a few health setbacks – but she’s more than happy to report things are now good from a health perspective. Still with a love of performing in her heart, she’s pursuing a career as an entertainer, but most importantly, Oldham has come out on the good side of a long cancer journey.

“It’s great,” she said. “My last two semesters of college and ever since has been really great. I have no seizures, which is really awesome, and my headaches have been pretty well managed. I’ve been feeling great, and it’s an exciting part of life because now I’m not constantly worried about it, which is something I haven’t experienced since before I got sick.”

HOCKEY FIGHTS CANCER NIGHT DETAILS

And in many ways, the return to Nationwide Arena will symbolize just how full circle her life has come. Looking back at her original performance five years ago, it’s a great memory shaded by the reminder of some of the toughest parts of her journey, when she was still in recovery mode and wasn’t sure what the future would hold.

“With how sick I was, it was just an exciting thing to make cancer better,” she said. “It was an exciting experience that made having cancer a little bit more manageable. It was like, ‘OK, here I am. I’m fighting this battle, but I’m also doing something amazing with it. I’m not just sitting my room and watching the game on TV. I’m part of something now.’

“Cancer really gave me that opportunity, and the Blue Jackets gave me that opportunity, and it was phenomenal.”

It will also be a return to a sport that in the ensuing time has given her so much. She grew up a hockey fan in Bath Township, Ohio, in the Akron area, attending Cleveland Monsters games and enjoying the sport. But her appearance at Nationwide Arena took her love of hockey to another level.

Through her performance at that Blue Jackets game, Oldham met then-CBJ assistant general manager Bill Zito, who would go on to become the GM of the Florida Panthers in September 2020. The two stayed in touch, and Zito invited her to continue to perform the National Anthem at Panthers games, something that became much easier when she moved to Florida after college.

And this summer, when the Panthers won the Stanley Cup, Oldham had the opportunity to see the Cup.

“I met Bill just on a whim, and then when he went to Florida, he was just like, ‘Hey, do you want to come sing for us?’” Oldham said. “I was like, ‘Heck yeah I do!’ I stayed in really good touch with Bill, and then I got to meet the Stanley Cup two different times.

“Singing for the Blue Jackets really started my love of hockey, so that was really cool. It’s just such an amazing experience to see the Stanley Cup in person. I’ve been such a fan for five years, which is not a lot compared to most people, but it changed my life. I watched hockey when I was in the hospital, so it was like a big celebration. It was really cool.”

Oldham also performed the anthem at a Cleveland Browns game earlier this year, and she said it’s probably the song she’s done the most in a public setting. It’s always an honor to do so, she said, but her dreams are much bigger.

While she’s lived in Florida since graduation from UNC Greensboro, she plans to soon move to New York to pursue a career in performing, whether it be with a touring group or on Broadway. She also loves acting, so anything that will provide her the opportunity to perform on stage is what she’s after.

“I definitely get a lot of adrenaline from it,” she said. “It’s always exciting, and I think the thing that makes me realize that I do want to do performing is that every time I get up there, it’s always exciting. It never feels like a drag. It always feels like something new. I’m sure it’s how hockey games feel for players.

“It’s like, ‘Wow, this is my life,’ and I get to get up and do something I love. Whether I’m performing the National Anthem, going to auditions, performing, singing, acting – whatever I’m doing, I’m like, ‘I have so much fun doing this.’”

While sometimes taking part in ceremonies like these can bring back memories of the toughest time in her life, Oldham also believes it’s an honor given the difficult circumstances faced by those fighting cancer. She’s also looking forward to meeting Urbanic and Tarantine because of the immediate bond that many share after going through such similar cancer fights.

“It’s just like an instant understanding with people,” Oldham said. “When you meet someone who has been through cancer and their own fight in their own different ways, it’s like an instant connection – ‘I understand the things that you’ve gone through in your own way. Obviously we don’t have the same experiences, but I understand a lot of the little things and different circumstances you’ve gone through that other people don’t really think about.’”