Melissa Rohlin
FOX Sports NBA Writer
Kyle Owens lies in a mattress at City of Hope as he battles most cancers and numerous issues, a dizzying change for the 24-year-old whose life as a standout athlete has come to a standstill.
Seven months in the past, the 6-foot-8 Owens was taking part in ahead for the UC Riverside males’s basketball workforce. Things had been going nice. He was the captain of the workforce. His coach would use him for example to recruits as somebody who was keen to carry out as a job participant. Last February in a recreation towards Cal State Bakersfield, Owens even averaged buzzer, which took him to “SportsCenter.”
But he was continually drained. He had night time sweats. He had chills and fever after practices and video games.
His athletic coach urged him to go to the emergency room final March for blood work. Hours earlier than his senior night time, an oncologist advised him he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Owens now wants a bone marrow transplant, and he and his household hope folks between the ages of 18 and 40 will take a cheek swab check to see if they seem to be a match.
“I’m simply on the lookout for somebody to avoid wasting my life at this level and assist me reside a contented, wholesome life,” Owens stated.
A affected person’s probabilities of discovering a match within the National Marrow Donor Program registry range relying on their ethnic background. According to the report, blacks or African Americans have a 29% probability of discovering a match, in comparison with 79% for Caucasians. NMDP. People can register to affix the donor program Hereor they will textual content DoITforKO to 61474.
Owens’ father, Keith, who performed basketball for UCLA and performed one season for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1991-92, stated there are a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be a donor.
“Blood stem cell transplant is what is finished,” stated Keith, who’s a post-production day engineer who has labored for FOX Sports since 1996. “I do not know what you recognize about bone marrow, however all that that I do know ever heard that donating bone marrow is extraordinarily painful for each events, even for the individual Well, now, simply to see in case you are suitable, it’s nothing greater than a cheek swab, which is much less invasive than a check. COVID in case you’re donating, it is only a withdrawal of blood Your blood is harvested for cells wanted to interchange the bone marrow.”
Those closest to Owens try to arrange visits to school campuses to get folks to enroll to be examined to see if they’re suitable. There was one held at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks final Monday and one other held at UC Riverside final Wednesday, attended by all of Owens’ former UC Riverside coaches and teammates.
“All 15 guys had been on the market with indicators,” UC Riverside males’s basketball coach Mike Magpayo stated. “Our faculty had a document 120 new members or new swabs, and we had simply over 200 (whole). That day they set a aim of 200, and over a three-hour interval after apply, they gave themselves battle on the market.”
As the faculty basketball season begins, Owens and his household hope extra universities will set up comparable drives that might assist him and the 18,000 different sufferers who obtain comparable diagnoses annually discover a match.
“There aren’t that many individuals who appear to be me on the registry, so I’m simply attempting to get extra individuals who appear to be me to enroll,” Owens stated.
After receiving the preliminary prognosis, Owens confronted a collection of ups and downs, the newest of which included a scan that exposed a tumor close to his backbone. He misplaced feeling in his legs and the power to stroll, and underwent radiation and steroid remedies to shrink the tumor from about 10 centimeters to 1 centimeter, in accordance with Keith.
Owens labored to regain his power at a rehabilitation facility in Century City and is now capable of stroll with a walker.
His willpower is obvious to everybody round him. In truth, hours after receiving his most cancers prognosis, he insisted on taking part in on senior night time, lasting simply minutes earlier than having to get replaced.
At the time solely his athletic coach, coaches and household knew what was taking place. He did not wish to distract his teammates, who had been combating for a spot within the Big West Conference event, which they secured with an 84-74 victory over Cal State Fullerton that night time. Immediately after the match, Owens went to UCLA and commenced remedy.
Naturally, Owens’ teammates realized one thing was improper when he missed the subsequent recreation towards UC Santa Barbara. After the 81-64 victory, Magpayo broke the information to the workforce in a convention room on campus.
“It was a extra emotional scene than I’d have imagined,” Magpayo stated. “The children had been devastated and nonetheless are. When they give it some thought and discuss it, they need him out of this struggle. We’re all simply now realizing how robust this struggle goes to be. He’s going to legitimately struggle for his life. There had been tears.”
Those closest to Owens describe him as somebody who lights up a room.
The information might have hit Nate Pickens, Owens’ greatest buddy and former roommate and teammate, the toughest.
“Just listening to about it destroyed me,” stated Pickens, who describes Owens as “selfless,” “considerate” and “welcoming.” “…He’s only a individual you wish to be round. Every group of buddies needs a man like that.”
As a fifth-year senior, Owens averaged 8.8 factors and 5.5 rebounds. And after receiving the prognosis, he continued to complete his grasp’s diploma in enterprise administration at UCR in between chemotherapy remedies.
He has excessive hopes for what comes subsequent.
And the extra individuals who get swabbed, the nearer we could possibly be to reaching them.
“If you are as much as it, simply donate some blood,” he stated. “There’s nothing loopy on the donor’s half… Just having the ability to reside an extended, comfortable, wholesome life is my largest aim.”
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA author for FOX Sports. He beforehand lined the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the Saint Anthony Express News. Follow her on Twitter @by Melissarohl.
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