texasports.com/andrew jones
above is a picture of andrew young a guard for the university of texas longhorns mens basketball program
he played well enough his freshman year to consider entering the nba draft as a one and done
if you dont know what that means
players sometimes have to play a year of college basketball if they arent old enough in order to enter the nba draft
players like lebron james was old enough out of high school to enter the draft
the nba recommended that he consider doing another year before he reentered the nba draft
so thats what he did
as the year progressed he seemed to get the flu with fatigue fevers and feeling bad
then
he injured his wrist and had to sit out awhile
the flu symptoms wouldnt go away
so
when he had it evaluated it was discovered he had all or acute lymphoblastic leukemia
a kiss of death years ago
one of my most traumatic experiences while a resident was taking care of child with this disease for a full month while i was doing my pediatric ward rotation
he died at the end of the month
had he been born 30 years later and had received whats available now that andrew jones got he would be over 50 years old today
it has a high survival rate now
so
into the md andersen center linked here he went and started chemo
at some point while there they even let him go out to the basketball court to shoot hoops even with his pic line in place
he now is down to just a pill that he takes for the next 5 years
he could have came back his sophomore year but he wasnt back to full strength so he opted to sit out his sophomore year
redshirting that year
which means he doesnt lose his sophomore year eligibility
so
he returned to full play this fall almost two years after he was diagnosed
story also linked here
in the opening game he entered the game at the 1340 mark
he scored 20 points in 29 minutes
he was the best player on the court that night
he is averaging 13 points a game and shooting 50%
a true cancer survivor
here is a video of his story
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