Young man diagnosed with rare cancer at age 15 continues to beat the odds

“It was a little swollen, and it got to the point where I was taking Ibuprofen every day, and I wore a brace to try and help,” James said. His mother, Randa, is a nurse and thought maybe he had injured his meniscus (knee cartilage), since she had the same injury and the same symptoms.

Finally, they decided to see a doctor, had an X-ray done on the knee and then an MRI, and the verdict was in. It was osteosarcoma, a rare but aggressive form of bone cancer that mostly affects children and teens.

Randa remembers the family was next door having dinner with James’ grandparents when she got a phone call.

“Braden was inside watching TV or something, and the rest of us were outside,” she said recently, sitting at her dining room table. “He (the nurse practitioner) called and said, ‘Where are you guys?’ I told him and he said, ‘We need to talk. It appears this is cancer.’”

James (who also answers to Braden), said: “I don’t remember them walking in. All I remember is them saying that they thought I had cancer. I think I started crying.”

His father, Matt, remembered: “Then he said, ‘It’s gonna be all right.’”

That began what has become a sometimes grueling five-year ordeal involving extended hospital stays, multiple surgeries, relapses and rebounds, and rounds and rounds of chemotherapy.

James tells the story on his website, allincancerco.com.

“On July 12, 2018, I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer. I went through 10 months of chemotherapy and had a limb salvage surgery that removed my patella and half of my femur. During the 10 months of treatment, I had to be hospitalized Monday through Friday (for) three weeks out of every four to receive my chemo.

“After 10 months of treatment and the surgery, I was declared NED (No Evidence of Disease).

“For a year, there was no sign of cancer in my body, but in June of 2020, we saw that the cancer had come back. This time it had metastasized to my left lung. We were shocked because the original tumor had responded so well to treatment. After a thoracotomy on my lungs, I would undergo another nine months of two new chemos, staying Monday through Friday in the hospital for two out of every three weeks. After this series of treatment, I was declared NED again.

“I stayed in remission until my one-year scans in December of 2020, and this time it relapsed in my right lung. Following another thoracotomy, I was told that there is no ‘third line of treatment’ for my cancer. I was lucky enough to get into a trial that had just come out for osteosarcoma which had shown promising results in canines. Dogs who naturally developed the disease were treated with this medication, and it showed favorable results.

“I decided to give the trial a shot. It lasted 11 months, and again on my one-year scans, they have just found another nodule in my right lung.”

That was last month, and a follow-up scan on Feb. 27 showed another nodule in his left lung, as well. Now, James is at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to begin another trial treatment that includes an initial monthlong stay, home to rest for a couple weeks, then two more thoracotomies (lung surgery), and additional monthly treatments back in Cleveland.

To help with expenses, the family has set up a GoFundMe account at, https://gofund.me/73dab3f7.

In spite of the latest setback, James remains the most optimistic one in the family. He is realistic about his condition but chooses to focus on getting well one step at a time.

“Braden’s one of the strongest people we know,” his mom said. “He came in last week and had the conversation with me, ‘If I die …’ He wanted to make sure I was going to be OK, because he knows he’s going to be OK. He’s like, ‘I’m going to be partying in heaven (and) you guys are the ones I’m going to be worried about.’”

His father, Matt, said: “He said, ‘Look, there’s a little dot in my chest. I’m a perfectly healthy kid.’”

James added: “I’ve been very fortunate. This scan that I had revealed another nodule, and, yes, it’s terrible. It hopped across to the other lung. But it could have lit up like a Christmas tree.”

As he prepared to head to Cleveland to begin yet another round of treatments, the young man said he feels fine — “I’ve had days where I might have been nauseous, but I have never felt … what I felt was just exhausted. I was just tired all the time (from chemotherapy).” — and looks forward to the day when there are no more hospital stays, no more chemo, no more surgeries, and he can finish his high school education.

Due to his illness and grueling treatment schedule, he has dropped out of high school twice, but is six or seven credits away now from earning his diploma from Crossroads High School in Copperas Cove. After that, he has an eye on going to work up in the Panhandle area as a wildland firefighter.

“Once I finish up with all this, I want to go work with the Texas Forest Service,” James said. “Specifically, in Amarillo. I’ve gone up there with my buddy to visit his brother, who does wildland firefighting. It seems like a pretty cool gig. It’s an honest job and the people up there are really cool.

“Another reason I want to do it is it’s beautiful up there. Amarillo and Canyon … it’s absolutely gorgeous up there. You can go 20 minutes outside of the city and just see for miles.”

What do his parents think about that plan?

“If you ask us what we want for him after this, our answer is going to be … we don’t care,” Matt said, smiling.

Mom added: “Whatever he wants.”

His parents say that their son’s positive attitude is remarkable and has remained consistent throughout the past five years. He has had some dark moments, but for the most part, he is the one encouraging everyone else.

For other people experiencing serious illness like cancer, James says his message is this:

“I know people who fight cancer and they’re like, ‘Oh, I hate it when somebody tells me to smile.’ I don’t think people should tell you to smile. I think you should look for reasons to smile, instead of just staring at all the bad stuff.

“If you can find things that make you happy in hard times, then it can really make those hard times pass by like it’s nothing.”