Courage and faith: the story of one boy's struggle with cancer

By Bronwyn Myer

Guest Columnist

Imagine being an energetic ball player in the third grade. Imagine how life can be for an 8-year old boy who loves to run and play on the field at Mike Miley Playground and on the grounds of St. Mary Magdalen School.

Now imagine experiencing pain and discomfort in your right foot. At first you think, “I must have sprained it or something. Maybe I twisted it. Perhaps it will pass with time.” It doesn’t. Your mom schedules a doctor’s appointment and tests are run. A lump is found in June 2008.

Chemotherapy begins that July but is unsuccessful in shrinking the tumor. Amputation is the only means to arrest the cancer. The operation takes place at Children’s Hospital on Aug. 13, 2008.

The patient, Alex Klein, with the support of his parents and doctors, returned to St. Mary Magdalen on crutches on Sept. 22, 2008.

In his absence, Alex insisted on keeping up with school work. Every assignment was completed just as if he had been in the classroom the entire time. All his teachers supplied the necessary assignments and forms to allow him to keep up. He was even allowed to take tests and work on projects at home. The Parents’ Club hosted a fund-raiser to help the Klein family with medical costs.

Alex went through physical therapy as often as three times per week and received a prosthetic leg. He wore the prosthesis to school when he returned from Christmas break in January 2009.

The students had been told of the changes in Alex’s life. They asked questions of how to act around him, and what would he would be like now.

The transition was made easier by information Alex’s parents, Denise and Bill Klein, supplied to me. Their information on the type of cancer Alex had and his prognosis helped our students understand a small part of what Alex was experiencing.

 “Alex continues to balance the care of four doctors and numerous scans, tests and lab work, even with a very active school, home and social life,” said Denise Klein. “Alex’s big love is baseball. He plays at Mike Miley Playground during the season and was chosen to play on the All-Star team this past summer. He attended a baseball camp where the coach told me he didn’t even know Alex had a prosthetic leg,” she said.

Alex has become involved in track and field competitions throughout the state through a program called GUMBO (Games Uniting Mind and Body), targeting athletes with physical disabilities. He recently took home two gold medals and a silver medal from the State Invitational Games.

Bill Klein added to this incredible story by relating the following incident: On the day Alex went in for his biopsy, his grandmother, Kay Bongard, was at her weekend home in Bay St. Louis, Miss. While working in the yard, something caught her eye. Thinking it was a rusty penny, she picked it up and cleaned it off. It was a small, oval medal of St. Peregrine Laziosi, the patron saint for persons suffering from cancer. Peregrine was told that he would have to have an amputation, but the night before his surgery was to take place, he dragged himself to the foot of a crucifix and prayed all night. While he slept he had a vision of Christ touching his foot. The next day his tumor was gone.

“We still have that medal, and we cherish it,” said Bill Klein. “This was surely a sign from St. Peregrine that he is aware of God’s plan for Alex, and he is watching over us.”

Guest columnist Bronwyn Myer (above) is the school counselor and coordinator of religious education at St. Mary Magdalen in Metairie.