Kevin “Racks” Roster
Kevin “Racks” Roster’s knew his disease was terminal at 36 years old. His sarcoma had grown so large that he was bedridden and faced with the choice of becoming a hindquarter amputee or accepting that he would remain in that bed for the remainder of his days. He refused to take the situation lying down.
Kevin chose a palliative procedure to remove his hip, pelvis, sitting bone and leg on the left side. Kevin decided on the surgery so he could continue his work spreading awareness for Sarcoma in spite of the fact that the surgery wouldn’t cure him.
After being told that it was going to be impossible for him to be able to sit long enough to play in the World Series of poker, Kevin set out daily to train himself to sit by playing poker in spite of the 136 staples that held him together and the wounds that weren’t healing.
He would overcome and live his dreams of playing in the World Series of Poker. He went on to do well in the series including making a deep run to day 4 in the $1500 Monster Stack (WSOP event #50) finishing 38th out of over 6,000 players and even being the chipleader at a point and received national attention for his “Sarcoma awareness bucket list tour.” He was even featured on ESPN during the series and had a segment on “Outside the Lines.”
Kevin’s hope was to inspire other Sarcoma warriors that with hard work those with the disease could still live out some of their dreams and also to teach the nation about Sarcoma and how to detect it early, avoid misdiagnosis, and the need for biopsy of any suspicious mass. As patients we all need to be our own best advocates.
Kevin “Racks” Roster wasn’t a celebrity, he was a normal guy with a terminal disease who refused to take the news that there was no more treatment for him as a defeat. Now Kevin hopes to inspire you to donate to the efforts to find a cure for Sarcoma a disease widely misdiagnosed and incredibly fatal once in its later stages. He was “all in” against Sarcoma. Are you?