In February, Sam Barlow student Ryan Stagg learned some devastating news: What he thought was a simple sports injury turned out to be cancer. 

“Well I was pretty optimistic about it for the most part,” says Ryan, “I just tried to make the most out of my time before I started treatment.” Ryan started his chemotherapy on March 21st. 

Many people have been supportive of what Ryan is going through. Ryan threw a get-together where all of his friends cut their hair alongside Ryan and bleached it, some even choosing to dye it fun colors or designs. 

Ryan has a tumor on his hip that is a type of bone cancer, also called osteosarcoma. The doctors presume that he is going to be needing chemo for six months, at the least. He will be going in for a few rounds of chemo, having surgery to remove the tumor, and then finishing off with more chemo to ensure that he is truly cancer-free. 

“Treatment isn’t that bad, I just have to sit around in the hospital for a couple days while they pump a bunch of chemos into me,” Ryan says. The chemos target his fast-dividing cells to try and kill off the cancer.

“After chemo, when I go home it just makes me super nauseous because my body is trying to reject the chemo, which makes me super tired because my body’s trying to recover.” Ryan says that it’s really painful to walk and move around due to the location of his tumor. Since it’s on his pelvis, any movement rubs against it, causing him a lot of discomfort. Throughout all this, however, Ryan still maintains a very positive outlook. He is making the most of his situation, and it helps to have people support him.

 If you can, please help our fellow Barlow student out by donating to his GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-ryan-as-he-battles-cancer, which goes to Ryan’s family to cover the costs of gas money, food, and hospital bills, or buying a shirt by contacting Tatum Louthan or Ryan himself. You can see how Ryan is doing and follow along with his treatment at https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ryanstagg/photos.