Jan. 26, 2018
By Greg Ostendorf
AuburnTigers.com
For Kayla (Perry) Funk and her family, January has been a dark month over the years.
In 2013, it was in January when Kayla left home to do mission work around the world. After training for three months in Hawaii, she went with a team to Kenya. However, she returned home shortly after because of nose bleeds and bruising, and it was discovered that she had cancer cells in her bone marrow.
A year later, in January 2014, Kayla underwent a bone-marrow transplant and spent nearly the entire month in the hospital. The following January, five months after she began taking classes at Auburn, she relapsed. And then in January 2016, with the cancer spreading to her brain, she had her second brain surgery to remove the tumors.
"That was the only time throughout my entire journey that I stopped being positive and that I stopped being optimistic," Kayla said.
This January has a different feel, though. This January, Kayla is living in Arizona with her husband, working as a full-time nanny for two different families and training to run a half marathon with her mom and sister next month. Most importantly, she's cancer-free, and for the first time in years, she's living a normal life.
"She's always been so optimistic and so forward-thinking," Kayla's mother, Christen Perry, said. "And I think that's so much of not only the prayers and God's answers, but also just her attitude and her determination has so much to do with where she is today. And that, to me, it's humbling. It's overwhelming. It's very inspiring.
"It is a miracle. She is a walking, breathing miracle."
Kayla has always hated running. There was a point in high school when she quit ballet that she took up running because she wanted to stay active. But even then she didn't like it.
So it came as quite a surprise when Kayla texted her mom and sister and asked if she could join them in the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February. Her mom and her sister, Morgan Perry, completed the Fairy Tale Challenge the year before ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" they ran a 10K on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" but they didn't even think to ask Kayla this year because of everything her body had been through over the last five years. And the fact that she doesn't love to run.
But Kayla started CrossFit in May, and she's been motivated to get back in shape. So she texted them, "Are y'all running the half marathon? We should totally do the half marathon."
"After a few months, I don't even know what sparked it one day," Kayla said. "I was just thinking that mom and Morgan did this last year, and I think by February, I can be in a place where I'm fit enough to do it. And if I just set a goal for this, then I have to do it. I have to push myself to get there."
So Kayla began running on the days she wasn't doing CrossFit. And with the women planning to run some and walk some, she is confident she can finish both races.
"She's going to do awesome," said Morgan, a junior at Auburn. "I'm super excited. For years, she couldn't walk. She was just confined to her bed. We had to help her to the bathroom. She couldn't bathe on her own. Now she's going to finish 19.3 miles. It will be awesome to watch. I know everybody that is on our team is super excited."
The race, which takes place Feb. 24-25, will be around the same time that tumors returned to Kayla's brain just two years ago. It was at that point, shortly after her second brain surgery, when doctors told her she likely wouldn't live to see her 21st birthday in March.
Running a half-marathon? It never even crossed Kayla's mind. But she's a new person, and while those miles she will run next month will bring back memories, they will also be a testament of her strength and a reminder that she outlived cancer.
"I feel good," Kayla said. "I'm not fatigued. I'm not tired. I'm not run down. I'm not sick. And since I've been doing CrossFit, I work out in the evenings. Comparatively speaking, I'm not very strong. But I am lifting weights and I'm running and I'm doing all kinds of things that I just never even imagined that I would.
"The way that my life is right now ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" I'm active. I'm healthy. I'm happy. My husband just joined our gym as well, and we just have a fun life. It's just normal."
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @greg_ostendorf