After College Student Gets Devastating News Weeks Into Freshman Year, Her Next Move Goes Viral (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Ryan and Chloe Potes.Photo:Courtesy of Chloe Potes

Courtesy of Chloe Potes

One month after moving into her dorm room at James Madison University in August 2024, Chloe Potes received an unexpected visit from her mother, Kristene. Sitting in a hotel room with her father, Ryan, on the phone, she learned that he had just been diagnosed with stage 2multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells.

“Finding out this news was and still is the most heart-wrenching thing,” Potes, who is a first-year justice studies major, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

In aTikTok video shared on Nov. 15, Potes, 18, documents her trip home from college to Virginia Beach to surprise her father during his treatment.

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“If anyone is to talk about my dad, they have described him as ‘full of life,’ and that is exactly how he is,” Potes explains. “He has always been the type of person to put others before himself, always helping people where he can, and is just filled with such joy and bright positive energy.”

Ryan Potes in the hospital.Courtesy of Chloe Potes

After going to the emergency room for what he thought was diverticulitis, one of the doctors asked Ryan if he had recently been in an accident. He had not, but it was then that they discovered his back was “completely shattered,” according to Potes. “Multiple myeloma completely deteriorated his back causing a total of 12 vertebrae bones to be fractured.”

Potes says that her dad’s diagnosis changed her family’s life, adding that “being four hours away [at college] was the most challenging” part for her. She did not have a car on campus, leaving her with limited options to visit her family. “I knew there was nothing I could physically do to help, but I wanted to do things around campus and on social media to help from a distance.”

“If I was not studying for my classes and had free time, I spent my time researching my dad’s cancer and Googling ways to advocate properly on campus," she says. She even wrote a story forthe campus newspaperabout her father’s diagnosis.

Ryan and Chloe Potes.Courtesy of Chloe Potes

“This resulted in my dad sleeping in a recliner chair downstairs in our home for a month. My mom would use a twin-size mattress to sleep on the floor of our living room right next to him, and she never left his side.”

Some days, the pain was “so severe” that Ryan was unable to move, Potes says. That’s when she decided to turn to TikTok.

She explains, “I already had about 10,000 followers on TikTok due to a video that went viral earlier in the year and thought that it would be a great idea to share on my platform.” Shefirst shared her dad’s storyon Oct. 1, less than a month after his diagnosis. That video has been viewed more than 250,000 times.

Ryan Potes.Courtesy of Chloe Potes

On Oct. 26, she shared another video of her closest friend and schoolmate, Hunter,shaving his head in solidaritywith her father — and it’s since been viewed more than 17 million times.

Speaking about the response she has received, Potes says, “It is truly amazing how people from all over can come together to help and lean on each other for those who can relate.”

She adds, “My dad is the most deserving person and I am so proud of him for putting on the fight of his life.”

source: people.com