In today’s episode of This Hits Different, Shelby Cassesse tells the story of Kenley McCurdy, a swimmer in the North Hills area who is battling a rare cancer with help from her new community.
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North Hills Middle School student Kenley McCurdy thought she'd change it up and try swimming last year.
Last year, my friend, she's on the swim team, and when I started swimming, I really enjoyed it,” she said. “So instead of doing basketball, I tried swimming. I really liked it.”
She didn't know it at the time, but that choice surrounded her with a community she would need to lean on.
Her world changed on a dime Labor Day Weekend. Kenley's mother Karen said they were at the pool when it seemingly started out of nowhere.
“She had really bad acute back pain,” Karen said. “Out of now of nowhere. She's not a complainer, so we knew something was up.”
The situation escalated quickly, so Kenley was rushed the emergency room. Over the next few weeks, tests revealed renal cell carcinoma.
“Which is extremely rare in kids,” Karen said. “I think they said about 50 cases are found of this type of cancer a year in the country. That's the hardest thing I think also, is they don't really know exactly what treatment works.”
Kenley has since had surgery to remove her kidney and some lymph nodes. Weeks later, her abdomen began filling with fluid, a complication from the surgery. It landed her in the hospital for five weeks.
Meanwhile, Nik Loutsenhizer, Kenley's coach at North Hills Aquatics knew she needed to do something.
“Yeah, it's a tough kill to swallow,” she said. “I care about all these kids very much, Kenley especially. So to hear that, to know what the family is going through is something that I knew that we had to try to help support them. We want our team to know that we're all in this together.”
Fundraisers totaling over $11,000, meals, cards, visits. That just scratches the surface of what North Hills Aquatics swimmers have done to show Kenley support.
Among Kenley's favorites: bubbles with messages plastered all over her house when she came home from the hospital last week.
“There's a lot of funny jokes that they put on them, like swim jokes,” she said. “And then some people pt nice things on. It made me feel good.”
The support has also been overwhelming for Karen.
“Words can't describe how generous people are to just reach out to us, even people that aren't that close or didn't know us,” Karen said. “And, I mean, when I see people who donated, I mean, we'll never be able to thank everybody for what they've done for us.”
And has helped Kenley push through when the day gets tough.
“It helped me a lot. It made me feel really good that everyone helped me,” she said.
Just the latest example of the power of community and strength in numbers, even if those numbers include acquaintances or perfect strangers.
“Kenley being twelve is not necessarily part of a 16-year-old social circle a lot of times,” Karen said. “But these kids have taken it upon themselves to do whatever they can to help in the best way that they know how.”
You can read more and donate to the fundraiser for Kenley McCurdy here: https://www.teamunify.com/team/amnha/page/legacy?url=%2FTUMoney.jsp%3Fteam%3Damnha