Monday, May 5, 2008

Chris Lofton cancer story is amazing

I'm sure most of you have already heard that Tennessee Volunteer All-American guard Chris Lofton privately battled cancer between his junior and senior seasons.

If you haven't, here's a quick re-cap. Following the 2007 basketball season, Lofton underwent surgery and radiation treatments for testicular cancer. He didn't go public with his illness at the time because he didn't want to distract his teammates. He kept the news quiet until last week when he spoke about his battle for the first time.

In a way, this makes sense. For followers of the program, it was obvious Chris was out of sync during the early part of last season. Even though the team was winning, there was a lot of talk about what was wrong with him.

I've known several people who have had cancer, and they have talked about the fatigue and sluggishness they felt for months after their treatments ended. It is something that takes a long time to get over, and I believe it played a big role in Lofton's early season funk. It says a lot about his character that he kept trying even when he had every right to walk away from basketball to concentrate on his health.

Here's praying that he remains cancer free and lives a long and healthy life.

1 comment:

Joltin' Django said...

What's equally amazing is the fact that this story was kept under wraps until after UT's b-ball season was over. The CIA could learn a few things from the University of Tenn.'s ability to keep an important "scoop" under wraps for 6+ months ...!