This could be what winning looks like

Cancer sucks.

This is not new information. Cancer has been taking people I love and admire for as long as I can remember, beginning when I was a child with my most lovely Grandmother. It’s a hateful disease.

There are some individuals who discover they have cancer, fight it and are fortunate enough to beat it. Some for a while and some see it stay away for even longer. Others are not as fortunate, they lose the battle and their life.

A closer look at some of these battles however may cause you to reconsider what winning and losing can mean as it regards life. The most recent example of this for me is the story of a young man by the name of Tylee Craft.

I’ll prepare you now by letting you know that he lost his life to cancer last week. The South Carolina native and UNC football player passed away during his team’s game Saturday after a two-year battle with stage four lung cancer.

The loss is undeniable. He lost his life. His mom doesn’t have her son anymore. His fellow players don’t have their teammate and friend. His coach, and his coach’s wife, lost a person they had come to love. Everyone gained perspective and inspiration though.

Craft’s fight with cancer became public over time, in large part because of how he responded to it. He was, as they coined it around them program, “Tylee Strong” and the phrase even found its way onto shirts and hashtags.

He endured the impact of the disease and the side effects of the treatments for over 30 months. That by itself requires a level of commitment and toughness that I can’t begin to imagine.

He also continued to work towards his education, graduating in May with a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sports science/sports administration. Then he enrolled in graduate courses.

The former four star recruit eventually medically retired as a player, but took on a leadership role instead as a student assistant. He continued to attend meetings, practices and stay around the program, wanting to be a positive influence and contribute wherever he could. He was being a good teammate.

Tylee Craft’s body lost its battle with cancer, but I’m not sure he did. According to those around him, the disease and all the suffering it and its treatment brings with it never claimed his positive spirit. It took his last breath but it never stole his commitment to learn, impacted his desire to contribute to his community or robbed those around him of his willingness to love.

That sounds like winning to me.