Minium: ODU's Breast Cancer Awareness Night is Personal to Mia Serna, Who Lost Her Mom to Breast Cancer

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Watching cancer slowly suck the life from a loved one is truly one of the most agonizing experiences a person can endure. And in 2020, that is what life had in store for Mia Serna.

She had just turned 16 and was a standout high school soccer player from Northern Virginia who was just coming into her own when her mother, Erika, was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer.

Four times she underwent treatments, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Four times doctors said they thought the cancer was cured.

And four times, the cancer returned.

Erika finally succumbed on the night of May 13, 2023. A day earlier, on Mother’s Day, Mia had gathered flowers and other gifts for her Mom when her Dad called to say, drop everything and get to the hospital.

She never fully regained consciousness.

“I was grateful that I could be there for her last moments,” Mia said. “I was able to hold her hand and say goodbye.”

Which is why tonight’s regular-season finale for the Old Dominion women’s soccer team against Georgia State has special meaning for Mia, a junior midfielder for the Monarchs.

The game, set for 7 p.m. at the ODU Soccer Complex, is a big one for ODU because the winner claims the East Division in the Sun Belt Conference.

But it’s also ODU’s Breast Cancer Awareness Night.

“I’m always thinking about my Mom,” Mia said. “And I know I’ll think about her a lot before that game.”

Mia had been mourning her Mom for over a year when she approached ODU Head Coach Angie Hind with an idea. Can we organize a “Kick For A Cure” event here to raise money and awareness of breast cancer, she asked?

“I wanted to honor my mother and also try to raise awareness of breast cancer,” Mia said.

CLICK here for Instagram Post About Kick for A Cure

The timing was perfect for Hind.

“One of our international players, Kathryn Hill from Scotland, lost her mother to cancer years ago,” she said. “We did a lot with breast cancer at the time, but you know how things go. We kind of stepped away from it a bit.

“So when Mia asked, I said absolutely.”

Mia and Riley Mullen, a junior from Staten Island, New York, did most of the work to organize the event, with a huge helping hand from their teammates.

ODU hosted a Kick For a Cure tournament last Wednesday of more than a dozen “teams” of five to seven players who played games of 10 minutes each. It cost $10 per player to participate, and the object wasn’t to win, but to give money that will go toward cancer research.

Coaches, students and athletes from football, tennis and other teams all took part. Some who played probably shouldn’t have, Mia said.

“We had some people on the field who it looked like had never been on a soccer field,” she said.

But no one was hurt and the event raised more than $1,700. Hind said it will become a fixture at ODU.

“Mia and Riley started something that we will now do every year,” Hind said. “It will become a tradition.”

The shirts the team wore that night said: “Together, We Never Forget. We Never Give Up. We Fight.”

That summarized Mia’s Mom to a tee, she said.

“She worked so hard and always put everyone else first,” Mia said. “She always cared about everyone, which growing up was a little frustrating because, I’m like, ‘You don’t know these people. Why are you helping them?’”

The reason was simple: her Mom was setting a good example for both of her daughters, including youngest daughter, Jacqueline. The family attended St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Leesburg, Virginia and Erika often told her daughters that Christians take care of others.

Her Mom taught catechism class and volunteered at the church

Mia’s family is in many ways the epitome of the American dream. Although raised largely in Northern Virginia, in the rural community of Lucketts in Loudoun, County, her family is from Texas.

Her grandparents immigrated from Mexico to El Paso, Texas, where her parents, including father, Jeremias, were born.

Her family worked hard. Erika graduated from the UTEP, where she was vice president of her class, and was a master engineering project assistant for Collins Aerospace in Ashburn, Virginia.

Jeremias, who graduated from Bellevue University, is director of operations and quality control for Raytheon in White Sands, New Mexico – he recently moved back to El Paso.

Mia emulated both of her parents academically. She is a biology major with a 3.2 grade-point-average. While English and music were topics dear to many of her friends, she found them boring. “I always loved science,” she said.

Both parents were athletes in high school – Jeremias played football and Erika ran track. They met while in college and were married 17 years before she passed.

They both encouraged their daughters to participate in sports – Jacqueline is a standout flag football player.

Mia was a bit of a Daddy’s Girl. “I was hyperactive when I was three years old, so my parents got me into sports at an early age,” she said. “When I tried soccer, I just fell in love with it.

“I remember asking my Dad to play goalie in the house while I kicked and I would break windows.”

Mia nearly lost her father two months after her mother died. He suffered a heart attack and had a torn aorta that needed to be surgically repaired. Doctors said the surgery would be risky.

Mia said she wonders if the heart attack was essentially a broken heart – he was in deep mourning over the loss of his wife.

“I remember seeing him and hearing those hospital noises, and then the smell, it all got to me,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, am I going to lose my Dad too?’ It was so scary.”

She didn’t lose him. The surgery was successful and his rehabilitation, while long and painful, was also successful.

“He had to learn how to walk again,” Mia said. “But he made a joke out of it. He was like, ‘Oh, I’m a baby learning how to move my feet.’”

His recovery took her back to her mother’s struggles and the courage and love her parents shared through that ordeal.

“It was so difficult when my Mom got sick because I’d had such an easy life,” she said.

"Our parents worked so hard to make sure we had a good life. We had a nice house, were had good meals and parents who loved us and spent time with us.  

“My Mom, she built my foundation on my relationship with God. That was so important to her.”

At times, Mia questioned that relationship. As her Mom deteriorated, she got angry.

“When the cancer metastasized, it was pretty brutal to watch her body change," Mia said. 

“I got mad at God. I was like, I’m praying, I’m going to church, I’m doing everything I’m supposed to. My Mom was the nicest person ever. She put everything into the church, into her prayer life. I was frustrated and kept asking, why is this happening?”

She had discussions with her priest and her father and realized, “not every prayer is answered in the way you want it to be answered.

“God’s not going to give you everything you want. He’s going to give you what you need.

“Life is going to be unfair. You can’t ask God for things like he’s a genie. Asking God for the strength to endure things, for that true strength, it took me a while to understand and truly accept that’s what I needed.”

And she learned to appreciate the parent she still had on earth.

“My Dad did a good job of making sure that we spent time with Mom, but also, tried to shield us from worrying,” she said. “He would take care of us and then go spend the night with my Mom at the hospital.

“He had a lot on himself. He was so strong throughout and there aren’t a lot of people who would have done all he did. I’m so grateful to have a Dad like him.”

She’s also grateful for her coaches and teammates.

She helped lead Tuscarora High School to the Class 4 state title in 2023 and was named the state’s Player of the Year. She also starred for the FC Virginia GA travel team and thus had a number of college offers.

“When we recruited her, we knew she was such a talent, such a gifted soccer player,” Hind said. “As an attack player, she does things other players can’t do. But as a person, she’s even more phenomenal. She has the biggest heart and is so kind, just a gentle soul.”

A gentle soul who felt at home at ODU from her first visit to campus.

“The culture, the values I found here, that’s what drove me to ODU,” she said.

“When one person is down, the team helps them up. We are all really close. We hear at other schools about clicks and groups, but with our team, we’re always together. We do everything together.

“I was here the summer before my freshman year when my Mom died. Everyone here, all my coaches and teammates, they were so supportive.

“It’s been hard not having my Mom around to talk to. So hard. I really miss her. But I can’t say enough about the support I've had here. I love my coaches and my teammates.

"They've just been so kind and so caring. I don't know where I would be without them."

Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram