'No one fights alone': Auburn survivors AUTLIVE cancer

by Jeff Shearer
'No one fights alone': Auburn survivors AUTLIVE cancer'No one fights alone': Auburn survivors AUTLIVE cancer

Jan. 26, 2018

By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com

AUBURN, Ala. - The student looks forward to meeting his donor. The strength coach counts the days until she's in full remission. The former golf coach seeks ways to encourage others who are dealing with cancer.

Three survivors. Three stories. Three members of the Auburn Family who have outlived cancer.

When No. 19 Auburn plays LSU Saturday at 5 p.m. at Auburn Arena, Blake Fabiani, Megan Young and Kim Evans will be there, wearing their navy AUTLIVE t-shirts. A reminder of what they've endured, and how they've been changed.

'It really lifts you up'

With eight SEC women's golf championships on her record, Kim Evans remains one of Auburn's most successful coaches of all-time.

Nearly five years after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and three years after stepping down as coach to become a special assistant to the Office of Student Affairs, Evans is an ardent advocate for cancer patients.

"It changed my perspective completely," said Evans, who in September will celebrate five years of being cancer free. "I gave up my career to develop a career of trying to help people stay ahead of it.

"I want to get people to realize that our neighbors are in a tremendous fight, and those who have gotten through it are still having to fight in some sort of way to stay on top of it. I feel like that's where my trail is leading me right now."

Knowing first-hand the importance of encouragement to those fighting cancer, Evans seeks to pass it on.

"It's what got me through," she said. "I was so fortunate to have the love and support of the Auburn Family and the Auburn community. It means everything to get that card or that letter or that t-shirt or that poem or book. It really lifts you up.

"A lot of times it comes on days you really need it. There's days you're not feeling well and you cannot get yourself up, and to get a t-shirt, or a letter, or phone call, it just means everything."

'You can't do it alone'

Two years removed from a life-saving stem cell transplant, Auburn University student Blake Fabiani recently wrote a letter to his donor, a 52-year-old German mother of three.

"Hopefully, I'll get a response back soon about who that person who actually saved my life is," said Fabiani, a software engineering major who encourages others to register at Be The Match, an organization operated by the National Marrow Donor Program, which connects blood cancer patients with donors.

When Blake was diagnosed in 2015 with acute myeloid leukemia, his younger brother, Jack, moved with him from Dothan, Alabama, to Minnesota, where Blake underwent nine months of chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant and recovery.

"I think AUTLIVE Cancer really extends past those people who have already outlived or are currently fighting cancer," he said. "It also takes a huge toll on friends and family of those people. Sometimes, for me especially, watching my family have to see me go through that was sometimes harder than actually going through it myself."

During Blake's hospital stay, he received calls from Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn and Director of Athletics Jay Jacobs.

"Everyone needs support to outlive cancer. You can't do it alone," he said. "And the support of everyone else goes a long way. When you're that sick, feeling that bad, it's kind of lonely. It's pretty desolate.

"Knowing that there are people caring about you and are supporting you, that goes a long way toward boosting your morale which is really important when morale is absolutely at an all-time low."

While fighting cancer, Fabiani relied on the motto, "Losing is not an option." A shirt displaying all of the cancer ribbons reminded Blake of a truth he's come to embrace. On it were the words, "No one fights alone."

'A platform of privilege'

Eighty percent. When assistant strength and conditioning coach Megan Young asked her doctor for the survival rate of his AML patients, he told her 80 percent die. In their honor, Young had a leukemia ribbon tattoed on her left arm.

"It's to represent the ones who didn't make it, and to remind us nothing is as hard as some of the things we've been through. And it reminds you, live every day you have."

Diagnosed with AML in September 2015, Young circled Oct. 20, 2018 on her calendar. On that Saturday, she will be considered cured.

"That's the big date we look for," she said. "What that actually means is my chance of getting leukemia again is the same as any regular person."

Young reaches out to others in college athletics who are fighting cancer. Like Lauren Evans, a soccer player at Florida, and Andrew Williams, who plays basketball at Texas.

"I think it's a platform of privilege to be able to say you're a survivor and to therefore help other people who have to go through it," she said. "Cancer establishes this human connection. It's not about just sport or just soccer, just basketball.

It's humans coming tougher for something we can't control. It's bigger than yourself. When you're fighting, you're not just fighting for you, you're fighting for all of those people who are going through, or don't survive.

"Even after you're done with the treatments, the battle doesn't stop. There are side effects that sometimes don't go away, or you engage with other people who have to go through the same experience, so you become a battle partner after you've fought your own battle.

"Every day is still outliving cancer."

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer