In April of 2011, Nick Brinson, now a senior at Thomas County Central High School, was finishing up his eighth grade year and getting ready to start his high school career. A tennis player for his school team, he fell off a skateboard the day after his final tennis match. He suffered from concussion-like symptoms and went to the emergency room to get checked out. At the ER, doctors found tumors on his brain. Brinson was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, and everything for both he and his family changed instantly.
His cancer treatments were successful. However, the surgeries required to remove the tumors caused posterior fossa syndrome, a rare condition that often shows up following surgery near the brain stem. Posterior fossa syndrome describes a variety of ailments that affect speech, mobility, swallowing, and balance, among others. The condition left Brinson with limited mobility and speech.
Brinson has trouble with maintaining his balance. However, he is determined to walk across the stage at graduation. Brinson can’t participate in the sports he used to before he was diagnosed. Instead, getting ready to walk across the stage is his sport. He approaches the task as though he was getting ready for a football game or a tennis match. Therapy and gym sessions are his practices, graduation is his game, and he has vowed to be in peak physical condition when it’s time to get his diploma. He hopes to beat both cancer and posterior fossa syndrome. And he’s going to do it in front of everyone when he walks across that stage.
View Nick’s full story here!
In the Game / June 2016
Stories of the Year
The Heart of a Champion
Written by Robert Preston Jr.
Photgraphy by Micki K Photography
