The cancer of Hall of Fame Bills quarterback Jim Kelly has returned. On Monday, he’s scheduled to start a round of chemotherapy. Peter King of TheMMQB.com paints a picture that is both grim and inspirational.
As King explains it, Kelly has “countless microscopic tumors” in his head. A recurrence of the large tumor removed from his jaw in 2013, the new cancer was difficult to diagnose as Kelly experienced migraines that couldn’t be explained. Now, the cancer is spreading deeper into his head, along nerves and arteries. But even though the situation feels bleak, there is plenty of hope.
Dr. Peter Costantino said Kelly’s condition “very treatable and potentially curable.”
“If he’s saying it, I hope so,” Kelly told King. “I just know there’s a lot of work to do, to shrink the cancer. I just pray it works. If you hear I’m about to have surgery, then you know it’s working. That’s the goal. But it won’t be an easy operation.”
Nothing has been easy for Kelly.
“It’s been such a roller coaster,” he told King. “So many things. The Super Bowl losses, the fabulous career, my son born sick, making the Hall of Fame, my son dying, two plates and 10 screws in my back after major surgery, one plate and six screws in my neck after another surgery, a double hernia, the cancer, surgery on my jaw, the cancer coming back, now what I’m facing.”
What he’s facing so bravely potentially gives the thousands of cancer patients who fight the disease in anonymity a shining example of the mindset they should have, whatever the type of cancer and whatever the treatment. We continue to wish him well, and we hope that everyone facing cancer -- both the patients and their family members -- find a way to muster the will to keep pushing back, regardless of the circumstances.