Wednesday Warrior – Colin

This is a short story about our beloved son Colin and his fight with Undifferentiated Sarcoma.

Before being diagnosed, Colin was a strong, healthy 20-year-old athlete, standing 6’-3” and weighing 230 lbs of solid “quarterback” muscle (as he would say). He was a good son, brother and uncle. He was bright, funny, and a loyal friend to many. He was on our local Police Reserve unit and was quarterback for a semi-pro football team in NJ. Colin was attending college classes and was expected to quarterback his college football team. He held high dreams and goals for his future, all cut short in late November 2011 with a visit to the local ER for a chest x-ray after complaining of a slight discomfort in his chest.

A large 9cm x 9cm tumor was discovered on his chest wall. After six long months of chemotherapy and 25 consecutive days of radiation, and finally robotic surgery, Colin was declared disease free in June of 2012. However, this victory was short lived when during his first 3-month check-up, it was discovered that the cancer had returned with a vengeance and spread throughout his body.

After enduring an additional six months of chemotherapy, only to be told he had run out of options, Colin was scheduled to begin a trial therapy at Sloan in a few weeks.  However, on Father’s Day 2013, we brought Colin into the hospital as he was getting weaker.  At this point, they discovered the cancer had spread to his brain.  After emergency brain surgery, Colin never was able to fight back. Through it all, Colin never gave up.  He never gave in and continued his valiant fight before losing his final battle on July 4, 2013, declaring HIS independence to the ravages of Sarcoma cancer.

If you or a loved one has been impacted by sarcoma cancer, we encourage you to share your story. Sharing your story can be such an inspiration to others who are dealing with sarcoma in their own life and remind us all of the urgency to find better treatments in order to make an impact on the devastation that sarcoma cancer brings. Let your experiences help others become involved with raising awareness!