Kyle’s mother calls her 6’4” son a gentle giant because of his great size and his great heart. After enduring nearly three years of treatment for pediatric leukemia so rigorous he was sometimes near death, Kyle now wants to become a pediatric oncologist. “I understand,” he said, “what these other kids are going through.”

 

The shocking news that he had advanced leukemia came to Kyle the first day of ninth grade. He’d dreamed of playing football in high school—now, instead of battling opponents on the gridiron, he found himself fighting an enemy within. He was hospitalized for a month of chemotherapy that was so intense he couldn’t keep his food down and was so lethargic that he slept most of the time.

 

After that hospitalization, Kyle continued to receive two hours of chemotherapy three or four times a week. "This was the part I dreaded most," he said.  "I would throw up until there was nothing in me, and then I would dry-heave." Hard, too, for the young teen was the loss of his hair. 

 

Between the chemotherapy treatments, which destroyed not only his cancer cells but also his immune system, Kyle was given steroids to boost his immunity. At one time his white cell count fell dangerously low—so low that catching the common cold was life-threatening. That meant no attending football games, and no snowboarding—another favorite activity. Instead, he stayed inside and tried to keep up with his schoolwork with the help of a tutor.

 

Now cancer-free, Kyle is in his senior year in high school and looking ahead to the future.  He has one wish yet unfulfilled—to help children with leukemia.

 

Kyle is one of hundreds of children diagnosed with leukemia who have been treated at Greenville Hospital System Children’s Hospital. 

The area’s only dedicated hospital for children