LEXINGTON, Ohio – Will Schafer grew up listening to the roars at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near his Troy Township home.
The 14-year-old Lexington High School freshman never expected one day the cheers would be for him.
But that was the case Saturday before the NASCAR Xfinity Series Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 when he was one of 10 patient champions honored at the 2.25-mile permanent road course.
It was a great day and a great weekend for Schaefer, diagnosed in April with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. But it even paled in comparison to the great news Schaefer and his parents, David and Michele, got on Friday.
After five rounds of chemotherapy in about four months, Will is cancer free.
“It was excellent news … incredible,” said David Schaefer, an engineering manager at Warren Rupp. “Halleujeah! He is most excited about the fact he gets his port out and can start playing soccer again.”
Will and his family, including sisters, Hannah, 19, Catherine, 16, and Emma, 11, spent the day Saturday swept up in the unique event that pairs the children with selected drivers. Will’s driver was none other than defending race champion Chris Buescher with Roush-Fenway Racing, also the current series points leader.
It was a far cry from that day in April when the young man, who had complained of stomach pain, was told the horrible news.
His immediate reaction was pure teen-age boy. “This sucks!” he said, admitting, “It was hard to take it all in at the time.”
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is cancer that develops in the lymphatic system from cells called lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that help[s the body fight infections. It can develop in many parts of the body, including lymph nodes, bone marrow, spleen, thymus and digestive tract.
David Schaefer still has a difficult time recalling that April moment. “It was a lot of emotion,” he said, his voice trailing off. “We wanted to find the correct course of action to eradicate it. We wanted to get at it. And we wanted Will to know that everyone was with him and would be with him throughout everything.”
Remarkably, Will suffered no serious side effects during the first four rounds of chemotherapy. “The nurses complained he was a ‘boring’ chemo patient,” Michele Schaefer said Saturday with a laugh. “The last round he had almost every negative side effect you can have.”
Will said the final treatment round was his darkest hour. “I just kept on taking the medicine and trying to get through it. My mom kept telling me, ‘This is the last time you have to do this.’”
Michele Schaefer, a home care social worker for Ashland Samaritan Hospital, credits her son’s attitude toward helping the entire family get through the ordeal.
“He never once felt sorry for himself. He just wanted to get it done,” he said.
David Schaefer said, “He took everything in stride. He helped us all get through it. It also helped we had the whole community behind us and the family was united.”
Now that it is done, and the cancer is gone, Will can focus on the one thing that has driven him most of his young life – soccer. He enjoys riding his dirt bike, woodworking and fishing, but soccer is his first love. He hopes to play for Lexington High school this fall, likely on the freshman team.
“In three or four weeks, he can start contact again,” David Schaefer said. “He will need to get periodic scans for the next five years or so. But he is ready to go.”
The roars on Saturday were proof of that.
