Baron & Budd Announces Spring 2026 Mesothelioma Cancer Victims Memorial Scholarship Winners

Scholarship winners Bailey Davis and Matthew Moran share their personal stories about how cancer has impacted their lives.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The nationally recognized law firm Baron & Budd selected Bailey Davis and Matthew Moran as the winners of the Mesothelioma Cancer Victims Memorial Scholarship. Each winner will receive a $2,500 scholarship paid directly to the financial aid accounts at their universities. Applicants were asked to submit a written or video essay about how cancer has impacted their lives.

Bailey Davis was selected as the winner of the written essay contest after a competitive review by the Baron & Budd Scholarship committee. She is a student at Howard University with a major in psychology. In her essay titled “The Foundation of My Casita,” she details how, as a child of a Guatemalan mother, she experienced the silent, aggressive toll of cancer through the sound of long-distance weeping. Phone calls would often come at the worst times, her mother’s shoulders would slink, and it would become immediately clear that breast cancer took another one of her family members’ lives.

“The most heartbreaking part of it all is that they didn’t die because their cancer was untamable; they died because they were poor, isolated, and completely forgotten by the world,” she writes.

Being from Guatemala, where half of the population lives below the poverty line and where in rural, indigenous villages, basic healthcare is a luxury, simple mammograms become a distant myth for people. Because of this, breast cancer does not get caught early but is only found when it has already consumed the body and a person is on death’s bed. Because of these tragedies, Bailey has dedicated her life to providing health care and being the change her people need.

“I promise to be the hands-on change my people desperately need, whether that means building grassroots non-profits from the ground up, driving mobile health clinics deep into the remote mountain villages, or conducting humble, door-to-door home visits to look these women in the eyes, evaluate their health, and tell them they matter,” she writes.

Additionally, Matthew Moran was selected as the video essay winner. He is starting his first year at the University of Florida. In his video, he shares about how, upon moving to his hometown in Florida at the age of six, he became sick and was diagnosed with leukemia.

“Some cancers have a 50/50 chance of survival, and I understood this as a coin toss. This was scary to me, and I didn’t know if my life was at stake,” he said.

Through his treatment and faith, three years later, Matthew was free of leukemia. Now, 11 years later, Matthew continually reflects on how his diagnosis taught him the lesson of living life to the fullest and making a positive impact to advance the world around him. In fact, many years later, he was given a rusty hand-me-down car, and when making repairs on it, he struggled for hours to unscrew one bolt.

“I started thinking about this bolt and how needed it was, and I thought how little we think about the minute details that go into the finest machineries that are made,” he said. “So, I thought, ‘what better way to advance society than to advance what runs society…the vehicles we use every day?”

This profound experience inspired Matthew to become a mechanical engineer. Reflecting on his life, he emphasizes that he does not want to just be seen as a cancer survivor, but he wants to be seen as someone who makes a difference and who lives with purpose.

“The purpose of our program is to support the education goals of those who have been affected by cancer. And Bailey and Matthew demonstrate incredible strength in transforming the pain and uncertainty caused by it into hope and purpose to ease the weight of those who come after them. Thus, are grateful for the opportunity to invest in their promising futures,” said President and Managing Shareholder Russell Budd.

The Mesothelioma Cancer Victims Memorial Scholarship was established to honor the legacy of the thousands of Americans who are diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer every year. For more information about the Baron & Budd Mesothelioma Cancer Victims Memorial Scholarship, please visit baronandbudd.com/mesothelioma-lawyer/scholarships/.

About Baron & Budd, P.C.

With more than 40 years of experience, Baron & Budd has the expertise and resources to handle complex litigation throughout the United States. As a law firm that takes pride in remaining at the forefront of litigation. Baron & Budd has spearheaded many significant cases for hundreds of public entities and tens of thousands of individuals. Since the firm was founded in 1977, Baron & Budd has achieved substantial national acclaim for its work on cutting-edge litigation, trying cases to verdict and settling cases in areas of litigation as diverse and significant as dangerous and highly addictive pharmaceuticals, defective medical devices, asbestos and mesothelioma, wildfires, environmental contamination, fraudulent banking practices, e-cigarettes, motor vehicles, federal whistleblower cases, and other consumer fraud issues.