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.
The following was published in the Iowa City Press Citizen on Tuesday June 12, 2007
Author: Maria Houser Conzemius
Seth Andrew Bailey was a strong and talented athlete. He was nearly fearless, throwing himself into skiing, swimming, bicycling and basketball whether he had one leg or two, often excelling over others with two legs in a sport he had just begun with only one.
He was in second grade when he began complaining of leg pain. He was sensitive to touch and wouldn't let his dad, Tom Bailey, wrestle with him as he did with his other children. Doctors could find nothing wrong until one doctor suggested doing exploratory surgery when Seth was in the seventh grade. Doctors found that the band of connective tissue on Seth's right leg had stopped growing. This caused the nerve in his leg to be severely inflamed.
Years later, in the winter of his junior year in high school, when Seth was 17, he was diagnosed with soft tissue synovial sarcoma in his right leg. Because of the danger of the cancer spreading, Seth and his family agreed that his leg would have to be amputated.
Three months after his amputation, Seth was skiing with a preliminary peg leg in the mountains of Winter Park, Colo. His doctor said that he probably wouldn't recommend it, but that didn't stop Seth from trying. His instructor was impressed with his skiing and invited him to come and train with the Paralympics team. He declined, because he was still in high school and would have had to leave home. He played basketball with a prosthesis and stood straight and tall, jumping in the air to score at age 17. People who didn't know him didn't know he had a prosthesis.
While in college, Seth took a course in "total immersion" swimming in Chicago. At first, with one leg, Seth swam in circles. Soon he was the best swimmer of the lot, beating swimmers with two legs. His coach kept in touch with him, which encouraged him to train to try out for the Paralympic swim team.
He met his sweetheart, Sarah Arens, at an Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Seth asked her to marry him the day before he died.
Sarah and Seth's family were by his side the last 11 months as he battled the third return of his cancer. For the last two weeks, his father, Tom, slept beside him so that he could turn Seth every two hours. A bar at the head of Seth's bed helped him turn to avoid bed sores.
On Friday, Oct., 3, 2003, his father asked him if he could lift himself with the bar. Seth said, "I'll try," but it was the last thing he ever said as he collapsed, fell into a four-hour coma, and died.
He was very optimistic about beating cancer. He said, "I'll try" many times in his 25 years on earth, and until that last day, succeeded.
During his last two weeks, he spoke of the heavenly love awaiting him on the other side, which he visited from time to time. He would say, "Heaven is the celebration of life. God is love. We are here to love people." He had a chance, as he glimpsed the other side, to walk hand in hand with Sarah Arens and the two children that they never had on a wooded path before he died.
Won't you help me commemorate Seth's courageous life on the 2007 Amish Harvest Tour to Cure Cancer Sept. 8?
Hills Bank is the primary sponsor. The Bicyclists of Iowa City, the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo., are raising money to fund research to cure sarcoma at University Hospitals. Dr. Jody Buckwalter, who treated Seth for five years, is the honorary chairman of the Courage Ride honoring the courage of Seth A. Bailey. All money raised at this event stays locally to benefit cancer research at the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center in Iowa City (www.courageride.org). Or mail a check or money order to: The Courage Ride, P.O. Box 111, Oakdale, IA 52319.
You don't have to bike to be a part of this ride. You can volunteer at a food stand, donate money, whatever you want to do.
It's for Seth.
It's so no one else will have to suffer as he did, squeezing as much from life as he could, but not living long enough to marry his sweetheart and have the children that he wanted to coach.
Maria Houser Conzemius is a former social worker, a member of the Press-Citizen's Writers' Group and a MyP-C blogger.