Ridgewood High School (NJ) senior Johnny Jackson has been battling Stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma since last year. He didn't realize it at first, played most of his junior season at about 75%, and still averaged 22 points per game.
Jackson got his diagnosis, has been fighting the cancer since summer, and has just completed his final chemotherapy treatment. All of this, and still Jackson is a star on the basketball team, recording 25 points per game on average so far this year.
Jackson learned of his diagnosis over the summer, and has battled as hard against cancer as he has against his opponents on the hardwood. He recently surpassed 2,000 career points - a feat which would be impressive even without Jackson's ongoing battle with cancer.
Here was Jackson on opening night of the season, three days after a chemo treatment:
My man dropped 30 points in his first game back while battling cancer!
Some highlights from that game:
"I just kinda went out there and did it," Jackson explained.
Jackson appeared on the local news last night, and here's what he had to say about his journey:
There's been a lot of health struggles. There's been a lot of ups and downs, but just making it this far to this point, it just feels great to be here right now ...
I'm a competitor, [cancer is] like a game to me, so I kind of face it like a game, and I was kind of up for the challenge from day one and I knew I was going to take it down.
As for how the story ends for Johnny:
I think it's going to end in a few weeks obviously when I ring the [cancer] bell. It's going to be a great ending, I'm just going to try to inspire as many kids as possible, and honestly just put it in the past as quick as I can, because it's been a pretty troublesome journey.
Inspiring indeed!
Johnny had his twelfth and final chemo treatment on Wednesday and we hope to hear some good news here shortly as he hopes to win that battle against cancer.
