Rating:

5.0 (3 votes)

Every young athlete dreams of hitting that game winning home run or landing that bone crushing hit - but every now and again - it's life that does the hitting. Sam Kolve was hit in the back playing baseball in April, then hurt in football after school - and after complaining of back and spinal pain, his parents noticed changes almost immediately.

Sam's mother Marge said, "He started losing his walking and his legs were getting heavy and he would fall and have problems doing stairs, so we decided there's something really wrong here."

And they were right - doctors found a tumor in Sam's spine and were forced to perform an emergency surgery to reduce the pressure. Three days after the injury, Sam was in a hospital bed, having completely lost his ability to walk.

Sam said, "It's not fair because right after the surgery it just hit me like a ton of bricks, it was like, well how am I going to do this again? It's hard to re-teach yourself how to walk."

After a couple weeks, doctors were able to diagnose Sam with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma - which brought more fear to the Kolve family.

Marge explained, "It is the worst kind of the rarest cancer you can get for a kid Sam's age. He couldn't move at all, matter of fact the first thing we noticed, he moved his big toe and that took about a week and a half after the surgery, we weren't sure he would get anything back."

Sam is still working to re-gain his walking skills - but beyond that, he's limited. Sam fatigues rather quickly due to the disease - which is something his friends have had a hard time making understanding. Sam said, "They don't know the difference between having cancer and not having cancer, because I can't do the things I want to that I was able to last year."

Sam is a huge sports fan - and for one day last month the Great Falls Voyagers made him a part of the team. Sam was able to tour the Voyagers clubhouse, sitting in on the pre-game prayer, checking out the spread of food outside the locker room and even getting in on Kyle Davis's stash of ice pops - and that was only the beginning.

After presenting the umpires with the Voyagers line-up card, Sam was able to take part in one of baseball's greatest traditions - throwing out the ceremonial first pitch, with the audience erupting in cheers.

Sam isn't out of the woods just yet - with numerous treatments still in his future - but he's determined to continue his fight.

Marge noted, "He's a very strong young man, I'm not so sure I could do this, but he's adamant about beating this, he has an upbeat attitude, we're just praying for the best that he will beat this and come through it."

And when that day comes, Sam says it's back to sports where he'll make up for the time he's lost.

The community will hold a benefit fun run, auction, and dinner in Black Eagle on September 18th to help the Kolve family with costs. To learn more, call Joanie Carl at 868-6236.