Beating cancer was like “Winning a Championship Game”

Taylor Bembery
Blue & White Flash / Variety Editor

At the age of 18 most teenagers graduate from high school and become concerned about what college they hope to attend. However,  Timothy Kendricks, a graduating senior criminal justice major  and sociology minor at Jackson State University,  was fighting a serious illness. Kendricks, a Jackson, Miss. native, who will graduate May 4, developed a Wilms tumor and was told that it was not terminal but he could lose his life.

Kendricks found out this devastating news after a high school football game.

“ I got hit in my lower pelvic area and later I went to urinate after half time and I was urinating blood. I kept going to the hospital and they kept sending me on a run around and that’s when they kept telling me I had a bladder infection but that wasn’t the case,” said Kendricks

A Wilms tumor is a type of kidney cancer that occurs in children and rarely develops in adulthood. Kendricks was a part of that rare percentage.

“When basketball season came around, I was getting fatigued real fast and that has never happened to me before. All of sudden, I vomited a white liquid,” said Kendrick. “First, doctors were saying I had liver cancer and that wasn’t right.  I had to ask myself,  ‘An 18 year old with liver cancer?’ I was told that I was going to lose my life over it. That’s when they found out that I had a childhood cancer that forms in the body of children and it just continued to grow in my body during my senior year of high school,” said Kendricks.

Kendricks had to give up what he loved to do the most, basketball.

“I felt like I was betrayed and that it wasn’t for me. To think I could have signed with colleges and played.  Knowing that I was sick and wouldn’t be able to play anymore was a problem, because playing basketball was all I knew at the time,” said Kendricks.

Being diagnosed with cancer and having to undergo chemotherapy was a fearful experience for Kendricks.

“The fears: thinking, what if it doesn’t work? What if this stuff appears again while I’m reaching my peak coming back to the game of basketball? Even wondering if someone in my family can get it are fears that I had to deal with,” he said.

Kendricks dealt with his illness by staying active. In a record breaking 9 months time, his cancer was no longer detectable.

“I felt like my body was healthy enough for it to be gone. When the doctor told me the cancer was no longer detectable I was relieved. That was the most joy I’ve felt in my life. Me and my mom were just sitting there because I felt like I just won a championship game,” said Kendricks.

After losing scholarship offers due to his illness, he went on to play basketball at Marion Military Institute in Alabama, where he met JSU Coach Tevester Anderson in 2010. He later accepted a scholarship to JSU.

During his matriculation at JSU, Kendricks played on the Men’s Basketball team as a guard. He hopes to get accepted into graduate school majoring in Rehab Counseling. He also plans to be a counselor for troubled youth to help them get back on the right track.

Kendricks is in the process of writing a book entitled “The Battle on The Court.” The book is scheduled to be finished by the end of May.

“I’m trying to inspire by reaching the youth and helping them with certain things that they’re going through by showing them that there is more to life. Even to the athletes, to show them if something happens to you, it’s not the end of your road; just keeping pushing forward and working hard.”

He added, “I’m graduating now and that’s one of the best things I’m ever accomplishing in my life.”