ENC 19-year-old details diagnosis, battle with cancer

WASHINGTON, N.C. (WNCT) — A local 19-year-old is getting treatment at ECU Health after being diagnosed with a rare bone cancer.

Austin Cherry said the news of the diagnosis has given him perspective. “You really look at how special life is for one and how quick it can change, definitely put some perspective out there of how you need to soak up every piece of time you got, because you never know when anything can happen,” Cherry said.

Cherry said his first year playing baseball at Pitt Community College was a struggle and he found himself not being able to do things he normally could. “I couldn’t do the normal things I could perform out there,” he said. “And like I said, the pain is just it was like shockwaves and like every step I took, It was just like I had to fight through it every time.”

A visit to his doctor for an X-ray found a spot in his leg. “It turned out to be Osteosarcoma and which is a rare bone disease, something you can’t help. It’s genetic. So, I mean, I, that right there already makes you upset. Like, why me?,” Cherry said.

He said it left him thinking deeply. “I don’t got much time, like and thinking as an 18-year-old in the prime of your life, I mean this is not a good feeling,” he said. “Like it’s very dull, dark and I just looked at my mom, dad and just saw worry, and I just knew immediately I had to be strong.”

“He said, I don’t want you to have to go through this.” Austin’s mother, Renee Cherry said. “And we were like the same feeling. We don’t want you to have to go through this. I would take it now if I could. I could take, I would take the pain away if I could as a mother.”

A plan was set in place for surgery to remove the tumor. Austin Cherry is now in that last cycle of six months of chemotherapy.

“The support of the community, friends, family, everything was the, I’ll say, the push to the start of just positive and not really negative,” he said.

“This hospital and this oncology program with pediatrics is just phenomenal, and everybody has just been outstanding. And the care that they provide,” Renee Cherry said.

Click the above video to see more.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT.