Bryce James Worthington
Born June 9, 1997 Died December 31, 2008
Bryce was a very happy, healthy, sweet, athletic, intelligent 11 year old boy. He was an "A" student in school and was just days away from beginning the 6th Grade. It was to be his first year in middle school. He was very excited about it. Bryce was reading at the 9th grade level and was spelling at the 12th grade level. He loved history, especially military history.
Bryce loved playing sports. He tried his hand at basketball, soccer, wrestling and gymnastics but found football and baseball to be his favorite sports. Bryce also did 6 years of Tae Kwon Do in which he earned a Deputy Black Belt and eight years of Karate in which he earned his 3rd degree Black Belt. Bryce also trained in Jiu-Jitsu and loved to roll around. He was an Assistant Instructor at his step dad's dojo. All the students looked up to him and thought he was amazing. Bryce competed in several Tae Kwon Do and Karate tournaments where he was a 2 time State Champion in Tae Kwon Do and the West Michigan Karate Champion. Bryce was a huge Ohio State fan and was buried in his Beannie Wells OSU football Jersey with a Buckeye nut in his hand, and an OSU stocking cap on his head (we planted a Buckeye tree in his honor this spring). Bryce's bedroom is also decorated with an OSU football helmet fathead on one wall and a University of Michigan fathead football helmet on the other. Bryce was almost always in some type of OSU attire. Bryce was always a very happy kid, the life of the party. We like to attribute that to him having parents that are so proud of him and love him unconditionally. Bryce knows how much his family loves him and how proud we are of him. He is the oldest of five children. Bryce has 3 younger sisters and 1 younger brother. They all adore and look up to him. Bryce was also the oldest of 10 Grandchildren. Bryce was able to experience many of lifes joys. He was able to do a lot of traveling and vacationing including, Hawaii, Myrtle Beach, horse back riding through the Great Smokey Mountains, Texas, Florida to Disney World, Mackinaw Island, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and many trips to the Great Wolf Lodge. He was able to experience holding all four of his new born siblings. He was able to be a big brother but on many occasions acted like a father to them. He was able to attend one middle school dance and had several crushes on girls at school. Bryce always liked the girls from a young age. Bryce won several citizenship awards at school and was a very proud member of the school Safety Patrol. He was respected by all and had a tremendous self-esteem. Bryce was always very confident yet very humble and sweet. The pain in our hearts to have Bryce go to Heaven before us is overwhelming. We just wanted to watch our son grow up. All the dreams and milestones that you look so forward to as a parent. You really feel cheated. We are so lucky for all the things that we did get to watch him experience. We all told Bryce that we would take his cancer if we could. Bryce would always reply to that by saying "I don't want you to take it from me. I don't want anyone to have cancer." The last full sentence Bryce was able to say (4 days before he died ) was “Be kind to your siblings”. He said that to his mother. This is something she always says to the kids. We feel that Bryce wanted us to tell that to his sisters and brother for him. We did. We promised Bryce before he died that we would tell the world his story. With your help we will keep that promise.
Background story of Bryce's cancer diagnosis:
Bryce James Worthington, 11 years old, was diagnosed with brain cancer, on August 31, 2008. For two days he had a headache and vomiting - normal flu symptoms. Suddenly he had a loss of movement in his left arm and left leg, we rushed him to the emergency room. The first thing Bryce said after he found out about his tumor was "This wasn't suppose to happen to me." On Sept. 1st at Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan a cancerous tumor the size of a cue ball was removed from his right frontal lobe. Three weeks later it was discovered that his brain tumor had grown back to the size of a golf ball and Bryce under went a second brain surgery where the tumor was removed for a second time. Bryce had 6 titanium plates and 36 screws now holding his skull together and an incision that stretched from ear to ear with 52 staples in his head. Yet his spirits remained high beyond imagination. He also defied logic by regaining 100% mobility of his temporarily paralized limbs.
On Oct. 2 Bryce was accepted into St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and was flown to St. Jude's in Memphis, TN and where he was diagnosed with ATRT brain cancer.
The tumor, called atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (ATRT), is a rare aggressive cancer that arises either in the cerebellum or cerebral cortex and often spreads through the central nervous system. It sometimes would metastasize to the kidneys or the bones. The St. Jude team showed that, while children with ATRT under 3 years of age have a dismal prognosis, children older than 3 can be cured by upfront treatment with radiation followed by chemotherapy. On Oct. 7 Bryce began his full brain and spine radiation.
Bryce's protocol was 6 weeks of radiation (30 treatments) in all (4 weeks full brain and spine and two weeks of focal radiation where the tumors were....6 weeks rest..and then 4 months of high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant/recovery.
Bryce made it through the radiation with hair loss and nausea. But he made it. There were no signs of his brain tumor having regrown. While we were home for his six week rest before he was to start his chemo, Bryce developed a cough. December 19, 2008, we took him to the doctor and they did a chest x ray of his lungs to discover that Bryce's cancer had infiltrated his lungs with 15 tumors in all lobes of his lungs. We heard the most dreaded words that a parent can hear, "There is nothing more we can do." Bryce's type of cancer does not usually spread to the lungs and they said that it took on an "unusual presentation."
We brought Bryce home from the hospital and watched as he fought for every single breath until God took him home. Bryce died in our arms at home in bed with us telling him how much we love him and how proud we are of him and asking Bryce to ask God to heal him and send him back to us.
As for our Righteous Anger, I was never angry at God (my husband was for a short while). We did pray for a miracle every day that Bryce would be cured from his cancer but found Bryce must have fulfilled his purpose in his short 11 years on Earth. Having said that, we are very angry at cancer, Righteously Angry, and want to help St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital find a cure by making donations for research from the sales of our "Righteous Anger Clothing".
