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Ashley Munoz knows what it’s like to be a hospital patient more than she’d like to admit — the 20-year-old college student has endured serious medical issues since she was in the womb. Now, Munoz has turned her fear of doctors into motivation to become one. Despite her past, Munoz has found respite and embraces hospital environments — when she’s on break from double majoring in biology and medical sciences at the University of Arizona, she travels to Mesa to volunteer in the Banner Baywood Medical Center emergency department. Inspired by her pediatrician, she aims to go medical school and eventually become a pediatrician herself. Munoz was born in El Paso after her mother experienced a high-risk pregnancy which resulted in her late birth via emergency cesarean section surgery. At age 3, her appendix nearly burst and she needed to undergo emergency surgery. Around 8 years old, she experienced her first seizure and still suffers from them as an adult. At age 9, Munoz noticed a golf ball-sized lump on her neck that turned out to be cancerous. She ended up going through chemotherapy and radiation while she remained in school. After that, she began getting migraines and started to have gastrointestinal issues, causing her stomach to become enlarged. Munoz’s health woes continued into her teenage years, when she was diagnosed with a non-aggressive breast cancer after she discovered a lump in her breast at 15. Paired with her fear of doctors, she said that she remembers going into the hospital for treatment and thinking she might not make it out alive. Today, she confidently walks into the hospital for her volunteer shifts at Banner Baywood, eager to help and learn in any way possible. “It feels special to be able to help vulnerable people because I’ve gone through so much myself and can relate to that scary experience of being in a hospital,” Munoz said. “Being able to play a small part at a quality hospital like Banner Baywood and learn from the incredibly talented team members there is such a blessing — it’s a small but important step in my journey to becoming a pediatrician.