Addy Donahue loves everything about sports: the practices, the competition, the camaraderie.

At St. Valentine School in Redford, Addy played basketball, softball, volleyball and soccer. “She was a gym rat,” says her father, Mike, who coached CYO basketball for six years at St. Valentine.

Addy moved up to high school soccer and basketball at Dearborn Divine Child.

In September 2013, when Addy, then 14, complained after basketball practice that her left leg hurt, no one had any suspicions that this would be the beginning of the end of her playing days.

“She had gone to a summer basketball camp,” her mother, Maureen, says, “and everything was fine.”

Addy went through six weeks of physical therapy. The pain in her hip forced her to limp. “My whole leg was tingling,” she says.

In late November, Addy had an MRI. On Dec. 2, an oncologist at Royal Oak Beaumont revealed the results: Addy had a tumor growing around her hip bone. A subsequent biopsy confirmed its malignancy.

“In two seconds, our whole life changed,” says Maureen. “We were devastated.”

Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Most osteosarcomas occur in children and young adults. Most tumors develop in the bones around the knee. The smallest percentage of tumors start in the bones of the hip.

Life in the Donahue household became a blur.

Addy was in and out of the hospital undergoing nearly four months of intensive chemotherapy along with the usual side effects: tiredness, loss of hair, nausea. When tests revealed that therapy made little difference in the tumors, she was told that amputation was the next step.

They traveled to Chicago to Northwestern University Lurie Children’s Hospital for an opinion. Medical records were sent to Cleveland Clinic for its evaluation. Their prognoses agreed: amputation was the only course available for Addy’s case.

Addy had to wait for another two months, until May 20, 2014, for her surgery. In the meantime, what was going through her mind?

“I knew that every day the operation was going to come,” she replied.

But there were distractions to keep her preoccupied and lift her spirits. Through all of this, Addy did her schoolwork at home. Her brother, Troy, a senior at Divine Child, brought home assignments to do.

Then, there was the support from the St. Valentine and Divine Child communities. “It was phenomenal,” Maureen says. Phone calls and visits from coaches and players, fundraisers, meals delivered, hundreds of get-well cards, on and on.

“We were on prayer lists all the way to Port Austin,” Maureen says. “People cared, people we didn’t even know. I can’t put into words how appreciative we are.”

The surgery lasted five hours. Addy was in intensive care for 10 days, came home for four days, then returned to the hospital for another 10 days when an infection flared up.

On that first day home, Maureen says, “There must have been a hundred kids from Divine Child walking down the street to our house, carrying a huge ‘Welcome Home’ banner, and another banner by the soccer team, ‘We love you, Addy.’”

In January, the Make-a-Wish Foundation treated the family royally to five days in Arizona for the Super Bowl. “That was fantastic,” Addy says.

Addy, who will be 17 on Aug. 7, gets around on crutches now, but she’s anticipating receiving a prosthetic leg in the near future, and, in the fall, looking forward to starting her senior year of high school.

She drives herself to school and attends team practices and games. She kept stats for the girls basketball team, which reached the state quarterfinals this year.

Maureen says Addy’s “core personality of head-strong determination serves her well.”

She admits there were times, lying in bed, praying, “God, can You ease up?”

“This has been a huge test for us,” Mike sums up. “We are a devout Catholic family and our faith is getting us through this.”

---

Don Horkey may be reached at [email protected].