In November 1995, seventeen-year-old Seth Bailey was passionate about sports. A junior at Iowa Mennonite High School, he was surprised when a sore leg turned into something serious. A diagnose of soft-tissue synovial sarcoma cancer came as a shock to all who knew Seth. His family and friends rallied around him while he learned that his best chance to defeat cancer was through an amputation of his right leg. Seth showed courage during and beyond cancer and returned to the sports he loved by playing high school varsity basketball with his prosthesis. Just 5 years after cancer first appeared in his life, it returned to his lungs and chest. Seth endured a year of chemotherapy and radiation and although cancer was a part of Seth's life, it didn't define his life. His courage and determination led him to become an intern for the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2002. He continued as an athlete and trained as a swimmer in the Paralympics. His battle was not yet done. In November 2002 more cancerous tumors were found in and around his lungs. Seth died in October 2003 after a heroic fight to live. All who knew him remember his courage.
When Elijah was born in July 2005, he was welcomed with open, loving arms by his mom Dawn, dad Nate, and older brother and sister. At 7 months of age, the playful baby with the beautiful eyes seemed to loose his appetite. He had gone from getting up on all fours and looking like he was ready to crawl to simply laying on the floor. One evening it became clear to Dawn and Nate that Elijah needed medical attention immediately and so they decided to take him to an after-hours clinic. The doctor there sent them home saying it was likely a virus and he would get better on his own.
But, a mother's gut feeling told Dawn this was more than a virus. When Elijah woke two days later with what looked like "a severe scratch on his eye," she took him to a local pediatrician. After blood was drawn and sent for testing, the family was sent home to wait for the results. Dawn hadn't even reached her house when the nurse called her and told her she needed to come back to the office.
"That was when I knew something was really wrong. That was how I found out," Dawn said.
If you see Joe playing baseball with his team, you might (or might not) notice the scar on his left arm. It runs from his elbow to his wrist, but it has faded some over time. If you see him reach high to catch a line drive you might (or might not) notice that his wrist bone sticks out a little. What you can't see by watching him play baseball is that Joe is a cancer survivor.
Just after his 7th birthday, Joe woke up one beautiful October morning with a lump on his arm, a lump that turned out to be Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare, aggressive form of bone cancer. He spent the next year in treatment at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital. Treatment included six surgeries, 10 months of in-patient chemotherapy stays, six weeks of radiation and many medications.
