From athlete to creator: This teen wrote a new playbook after cancer diagnosis

When doctors told 16-year-old AJ Walker he had osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, his world changed overnight. Instead of prepping for big games, the football starter and three-sport athlete suddenly faced a completely new set of challenges: surgeries, chemotherapy and an indefinite break from the sports that had always defined him. 

Just weeks earlier, AJ’s life revolved around competition. He led his football team as a sophomore starter, wrestled through the winter, and ran track in the spring. 

“I was always pushing myself to stay active and be better,” he said. “I would be down on myself if I wasn’t constantly doing something.”

Even when injuries piled up, he pushed through – until persistent knee pain sent him to the doctor. What his family thought was another sports injury turned out to be something far more serious: a tumor on his femur.

While the tumor was mainly concentrated in his leg, they also learned the cancer had metastasized to several other bones in his body making him high-risk.

With the diagnosis confirmed, the family worked closely with experts at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital. Their care team included Aarti Kamat, MD, hematologist/oncologist with M Health Fairview and the University of Minnesota Medical School who started AJ on chemotherapy as the standard first line of treatment.

After two cycles of chemo, Christian Ogilvie, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with M Health Fairview and the University of Minnesota Medical School performed surgery to remove the tumor and included 11 inches of his femur and all of his knee. This is done to reduce the chance of the cancer continuing to spread. The lost bone was then replaced with a prosthesis.

Then came more scans, more testing, and more medications. all of which kept AJ from doing what he loved. And losing his place on the field left a hole he wasn’t sure how to fill.

But giving up wasn’t an option. Sports had taught him to push forward, to adapt, to pivot; and that’s exactly what he did.