A complete team
Raleigh's Liam Canard goes from chemotherapy and radiation treatments at Carolina during the week to hitting doubles and triples on weekends with his travel baseball team.
Eighth grader and star catcher Liam Canard, of Our Lady of Lourdes School (OLLS) in Raleigh, loves baseball. When he isn’t playing for his school team, he’s playing with his travel team, the NCDB RiverCats, in weekend tournaments. As far back as he can remember, he’s been swinging a bat and wearing a glove.
“When he isn’t on the field, he’s watching baseball on television and thinking about baseball,” jokes his father, Jim, who coaches Liam at OLLS. “Every morning, he wakes up and turns on the MLB Network for highlights. It’s the first thing he does each day.”
Last June, Liam’s ability to play baseball was in question when he was diagnosed with Stage IIIB Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s immune system. Treatments for Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients are challenging, and for the better part of a year, Liam has undergone rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, leaving him immunocompromised and unable to attend school during the fall semester in 2014.
Dr. Patrick Thompson, associate professor of hematology-oncology in the Department of Pediatrics at UNC, is Liam’s doctor. Thompson laughs when he thinks back to how Liam and his parents interpreted the recommendation to keep Liam away from closed, crowded spaces – to not go to school, where other kids would be carrying infections.
“How does that impact baseball?” they asked. “You don’t play baseball in a closed, crowded space. If we keep him away from the other boys in the dugout, can he play?”
Liam was cleared to play on fall weekends with his travel team, filling the role of designated hitter rather than taking on the physical strain of catching. Despite treatments that left him feeling weak, as one of the best players for his age, he still played well. He went from being tired and nauseated on Thursday nights to hitting doubles and triples on Saturdays and Sundays.
“Baseball has kept him going,” says Liam’s mom, Annette. “Being able to get on the field and play during his treatment has been so important for him. He wasn’t at peak performance, of course, but his will and his mental state were strong, and baseball helped him get through his treatment in so many ways.”
Dr. Thompson marvels at the way Liam was able to handle treatments during the first year of his fight against Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“He told me one time that he should’ve legged out a triple but had to settle for a double because he wasn’t feeling as fit as usual,” says Thompson. “That kind of epitomizes how he has approached his treatments. He hasn’t been slowed down very much. His inner-strength is amazing for someone so young.”
The Carolina Family
Liam and his parents credit many supporters for helping him through the past year of treatment. His school community at OLLS has been there for him, hosting an event to raise money to help with medical bills and reaching out to the Canards in many meaningful ways.
During those initial days of treatment last June, Liam received a much-needed lift in the form of an unexpected visit from former Carolina baseball player Chase Jones and 2015 Tar Heel pitchers Benton Moss, Chris McCue, and Zach Rice.
“We had all been trying to handle the challenging news we had received, and during one of the very early visits to the hospital, Liam was surprised by a number of UNC baseball players that had come to visit and give him support,” says Annette. “It was a special moment for all of us, particularly Liam.”
Chase Jones, founder of the Vs. Cancer Foundation, which raises money to help in the fight to cure pediatric cancers, knows all too well how important it can be to have supporters by your side. His own teammates rallied around him when he was diagnosed with Stage IV brain cancer as a college freshman and treated at the Children’s Hospital.
To keep reading, please see UNC Health Care: https://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2015/may/a-complete-team
