EP 3: I Just Want To Be A Kid Again

On this week's Conversations With Kids Beating Cancer Podcast our Young Champions Board Member, Wylie Kate, sits down for a conversation with Hunter. Hunter is about to complete his 9th-grade year at Allen High School. He was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma in December last year. Before his diagnosis, he was a football player for the Allen Eagles. In August of the following year, he returned to football and now enjoys the practices and the love of football. Wylie Kate asks questions about Hunter's diagnosis and he gives her an inside look at how his perspective through his cancer journey changed. This is Hunter's first time telling his cancer story.


Kids Shouldn't Get Cancer But When They Do... YOU Can Help!
Visit wokc.org/donate to donate today.

Make sure you follow us!

Instagram: @wokc
Facebook: Wipe Out Kids Cancer
X: @wipeoutkdscancr

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Welcome to Conversations with Kids Beating Cancerpodcast. This podcast is brought to you
by Wipeout Kids Cancer, Dallas,What Word pediatric cancer charity since nineteen eighty.
This podcast is designed to connect kidsthat are currently battling cancer with pediatric
cancer survivors. We invite you guysto sit down with one of our Young
Champion board members as they interview thosewho have defeated cancer in their unfiltered raw

(00:29):
journey since their diagnosis. So ifyou like we here, make sure to
give a five star rating on whereveryou listen to your podcast and tell your
friends. Hi. This is WileyKay and I'm a Young Champions board member

(00:51):
at Wipe Out Kids Cancer. Welcometo episode three of our podcast, Conversations
with Kids Beating Cancer. I'm herewith Hunter today to talk about his journey
in beating medilla blastoma. When didyou first sense that something wasn't right?
So it was about halfway through myeighth grade football season, and I kind
of chalked it up to a concussion, just because I've been playing football my

(01:12):
whole life. I've had a fewconcussions in the past, and I was
just getting really bad headaches. Butthey just want to go away and there's
no solution to it. So,I mean, I got all the way
to the end of my football season, and my mom was all worried because
obviously that's what moms do. Theyworry about a lot of stuff. So

(01:32):
we decided to go get MRI justto chalk it off the board and just
to make sure everything was okay.And the results came back and just they
found out how to a tumor.So I was really just surprised to me,
especially because I just thought it wasa concussion. So I really didn't
think at first anything was wrong,just because that's what I've been used to

(01:53):
playing football. Just injuries happened,So yeah, it was just a big
surprise. So what were you feelingwhen you first heard that it was a
tumor and it was more than justheadaches or concussion. At first, I
was just like really like surprised andjust kind of angry with everything because I
was just thinking that why would happento me, Like I was still thirteen

(02:14):
years old playing football. I'm juststill trying to like form into my life,
and at first, it was justlike a really big hit on me
and my emotions. So my emotionswere kind of everywhere, just with how
everything was like turning out, andit was just like such a heavy weight
on my chest just hearing that frommy parents. But I knew I had
to stay strong just because I don'twant to make everyone else worried, like

(02:37):
all my friends and family, justbecause if I stay strong, then obviously
they are too. What was theimpact of just your whole journey? I
think long term, it was agood thing for me just to understand how
it is to be like put backat the bottom and starting from like step
one and just realizing how like yourlife and change in a second. And

(03:02):
like my whole family was obviously devastatedby it, but I just knew that
like staying strong would help out,but it would be a big, like
change in everyone's life, especially mine, just from being like an all star
football player, just multi sport athleteand then just getting diagnosed with cancer.
It's a big impact in the moment. But now I'm about one year out

(03:24):
from being diagnosed, and I'm justdoing a lot better now. I'm a
lot stronger of a person, Likeit really helped me grow as a person.
So, yeah, how was yourfamily's reaction to this all and like
the way they treated you after yourdiagnosis. Well, I think they were

(03:45):
all pretty surprised as well, justbecause obviously nobody expects that type of thing
to happen to your kid, especiallyas parents, So they were all really
surprised. But I mean, wehad great support from my whole family.
Not even a week later, Ihad three my uncles come down. I
had my girlfriend's family at the timejust like supporting me there as well.
So I think I had a reallygood support system. I mean, everyone

(04:09):
was trying not to be worried justbecause they knew it would affect me as
well. But they all kind ofhid their emotions a little bit more and
kind of helped me like be readyfor what my journey was going to come
into. Kind of piggybacking off ofthat last question, how was your experience
with your friends throughout it? Likewere they able to interact with you and

(04:29):
come and see you or was itmore of like you feeling isolated and those
type of feelings. I definitely foundout, like who were my real friends
and who were just kind of likealong for the ride. I'd probably three
really good friends that stuck by myside and always checked up on me.
But I remember, just like whenI announced it to everyone in my school,

(04:49):
everyone was just posting it everywhere,praying for good luck and praying for
a good journey. So I thinkall my friends were really supportive. But
I just really figured out who waslike really there for me at the time
and who was just like Aniela atme, just because of how they were
stood up for me and how theywould be there for me whenever I needed

(05:11):
something, like if I wasn't feelinggood, if I wasn't in school one
day, they would come in andcheck on me. Just you really figure
out who is there for you intough times like that. My social life
kind of went down a lot,just because I was really focused on myself
and getting better and making sure everyonearound me was still happy, like my
sister, especially my mom. SoI was just trying to focus on myself.

(05:31):
But my friends would also just Imean, three really good friends just
helped me out. They would justalways check out on me. But yeah,
I think I kind of isolated myselffrom a lot of people instead of
it being the other way around.Just trying to focus on myself. Now
I'm back to where I was.I have really good friends now, So
yeah, that's great. It soundslike throughout your whole journey you were very

(05:56):
like your mindset was just like ongetting back to normal and looking out for
those around you, which is reallyawesome and encouraging that you were able to
remove the focus from yourself and focuson how your sister was and your mom,
like you talked about. But whenduring your journey did your mindset shift
and when did your mindset become likedetermined and I am going to beat this

(06:18):
and it's not gonna overcome me.Yeah, I think that Like when I
really like understood that I had tobe strong fout, it was like right
before going into my surgery, itwas my first time ever seeing my dad
cry because obviously they're all scared.So I mean, I went into the
surgery just like thinking like I needto beat this, like I'm going to
be strong, Like this is somethingthat I needed to take control of and

(06:41):
not let it take control of me. And that's where like just being strong
comes in for everyone else around you, because if you're strong, then everyone
else sees that and thinks you're doinggood and they're going to take some stress
off themselves. I mean It wasreally just staying strong for people around me.
I understood that I had to bestrong and that I knew I was
going to beat It does go inwith a good mindset to stay positive.

(07:01):
Positive mindset and everything else around thatkind of just comes into one like positive,
then everything else around you just getsbetter. You mentioned you had two
surgeries, so can you kind ofexplain your story of those surgeries. We
went into my first surgery not knowingwhere the tumor was placed on my brain
stem or if it was placed onmy brain stem, so we were very

(07:26):
sure about how the first surgery wouldgo and if we were going to need
a second one. So, Imean we came out of the first surgery
pretty hopeful. My doctor gave ita day. He was a great guy,
but he gave it a day justto let my body recover, and
then he came back in the nextday. I remember him taking my mom
out into the hallway, and Iremember my mom coming back in crying because

(07:48):
by doctor I told her I neededa second surgery because he didn't or he
didn't know where the tumor was stilland if he could get it all in
the first surgery, and he didn'twant to push anything and cut up the
part. So at that point itwas kind of just a big hit for
us all because a second brain surgeryis a lot for anybody. Really.
He went back in and got everythingluckily, but it was just like hearing

(08:11):
that I needed a second surgery,it was a big thing for me.
I can imagine getting diagnosed with cancerand being in your shoes to be a
very scary and overwhelming experience. Canyou talk about the fears that you had
or what the scariest part of yourjourney was. Well, at first I

(08:33):
was really scared, just not knowingwhat I was walking into and not understanding
like where it would lead me.But as time went on, I think
I understood it more and understood thatlike I'm going to be okay, and
that like I can take this setof my control. So I mean I
was scared about the whole journey obviously, But it gets better over time,
definitely, especially as like time goeson, you can feel yourself start improving.

(08:58):
You just really get some confidence backand and you kind of understand more
about what's going on and it getsless scary. For sure. I understand
that your surgeries were in December andyou were doing chemotherapy until May, and
then you were able to actually playin a football game in August. Can
you talk about what was going onin your head before that game and just

(09:20):
preparing to get back on the fieldafter the year you had had so Really,
throughout my whole treatments, my biggestthought was just I want to be
a kid again, Like I mean, honestly, I like my biggest goal
every week was to try and makea full week of school. Just I
just wanted to feel normal again.And as soon as I got off chemo,

(09:43):
I started going back into football,just running around with some people,
just trying to get back into that. So when I got to August,
and I've been practicing for about amonth before that, it just really felt
good and like back to normal,just to know that like I'm past everything
and I can being like myself again. But before the game, it was

(10:03):
just really nerve wracking again not knowinglike what I was walking into and understanding
that everything that had happened is goingto come into now and see like what
like what's gonna happen and how amI gonna like overcome this. But before
the game, my thoughts were justI was. I was pretty anxious just

(10:24):
after everything that happened, not knowinglike if I was gonna be heard or
if I was gonna do good again. It was good emotions just because I
actually got that feeling of being ableto play football again after so long of
being on the sideline just because Ihave to watch, But it was good
feelings. What was your season likeafter that first game? Was it hard,

(10:46):
like acclimating again and like getting backinto routine of doing athletics after being
off and after the effects of chemotherapy, or how was that transition for you?
It was pretty rough for me,just because I lost thirty pounds,
and I mean it does a lottoo, especially with like two brain surgeries.
Everything gets thrown off. But therest of the season was rough,

(11:09):
just trying to acclimate myself and tryingto get back into it, especially with
like my speed and balance. Igot a really hard time just getting my
balance back and understanding how to becomea football player again because I've lost a
lot of stuff with all that othertreatments. So throughout the season I just

(11:30):
kind of tried to understand my bodya little bit more like you have to
listen to your body and what it'stelling you. It was rough going in
back into football for the first season, but after the season ended and we
went into off seasons when I reallystarted like getting myselself back and the athlete
I was before just kind of reallyconstantly working. So consistency definitely helped a

(11:52):
lot with becoming back to a betterathlete. So what would you say to
families of people going through cancer?My advice would be to stay strong for
your kids and for everyone else aroundyou, because your emotions are going to
affect everybody else, and if youcan stay strong for your kid, then

(12:13):
they're really going to appreciate that,because the last thing a kid wants to
see is their parents said, especiallylike when they have such a burden going
on for them, it's really goodto see other people around you happy.
What would you say to someone whojust got their diagnosis and is in a
similar situation to the place you werein. What would your advice be.

(12:37):
Some advice I'll just give him istrust God. Really just trust that he
has a plan for you and thateverything's going to be okay, because you
really have to think that everything's goingto be okay. They have to think
it into reality. That's really howI got through everything, just trust in
God and putting all my trust intolike, everything's gonna be okay, especially

(12:58):
with everything else going on around youand everything to you. Having a positive
mindset and having a strong mindset isgoing to get you through everything. We
hope that you have enjoyed episode threeof our podcast, and we hope that
you come back and listen to newepisodes coming out soon.