Texas Team Rallies Around Player With Cancer

A high school basketball team in Texas is proving the old adage, “there’s no ‘I’ in team, true by rallying around a senior player diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Justin Nicholas, 18, a senior at Wakeland High School in Frisco, Texas, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in late December after discovering lumps on his body. Doctors found the cancerous tumors had spread to Nicholas’s lymph nodes, stomach and neck, forcing the four-year basketball player, who had been playing basketball up to a week before his Christmas Eve surgery, to cut his senior season short.

Nicholas’ teammates on the Wakeland varsity team responded by rallying to his aid, holding pass the bucket fundraising drives at the halftime of their home games and holding a “”shoot-a-thon”” to raise money to help defray his medical costs.

“”The insurance is paying some of the costs but each time he goes into the hospital [for chemotherapy] it’s a five-day stay, Nicholas’ mother, Gayla, told ABCNews.com He just did a stem cell collection in case he needs a transplant in the future. We don’t even have any idea what the total is going to be.”

Nicholas will begin his fourth round of chemotherapy treatment next week. In between his treatments he’s been a fixture on the sidelines and last week he got the chance to shoot the last bucket of his high school basketball career.

The team honored Nicholas on its senior night Feb. 12, presenting him with a signed team poster, the game ball and allowing Nicholas to score the first basket of the game against Heritage High School.

Texas Team Rallies Around Player With Cancer

ABC

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/02/22/texas-school-basketball-team-rallies-around-player-with-cancer/

A high school basketball team in Texas is proving the old adage, “there’s no ‘I’ in team, true by rallying around a senior player diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Justin Nicholas, 18, a senior at Wakeland High School in Frisco, Texas, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in late December after discovering lumps on his body. Doctors found the cancerous tumors had spread to Nicholas’s lymph nodes, stomach and neck, forcing the four-year basketball player, who had been playing basketball up to a week before his Christmas Eve surgery, to cut his senior season short.

Nicholas’ teammates on the Wakeland varsity team responded by rallying to his aid, holding pass the bucket fundraising drives at the halftime of their home games and holding a “”shoot-a-thon”” to raise money to help defray his medical costs.

“”The insurance is paying some of the costs but each time he goes into the hospital [for chemotherapy] it’s a five-day stay, Nicholas’ mother, Gayla, told ABCNews.com He just did a stem cell collection in case he needs a transplant in the future. We don’t even have any idea what the total is going to be.”

Nicholas will begin his fourth round of chemotherapy treatment next week. In between his treatments he’s been a fixture on the sidelines and last week he got the chance to shoot the last bucket of his high school basketball career.

The team honored Nicholas on its senior night Feb. 12, presenting him with a signed team poster, the game ball and allowing Nicholas to score the first basket of the game against Heritage High School.