Bigger than basketball: Auburn fan Hayes Hunter AUTLIVES cancer

With Saturday’s victory over No. 16 Purdue, No. 2 Auburn improved to 11-1 with four wins over top 25 teams. The Tigers are making a strong case for the best team in college basketball this season.

But sometimes it’s bigger than basketball. 

After the game, Dylan Cardwell carried 10-year-old Hayes Hunter into the locker room to celebrate with the team. Hayes, who sat behind the Auburn bench with his parents, helped break down the team huddle. 

“1…2…3…Auburn! 4…5…6…Family!”

Just moments before, Auburn took a break from the celebration, huddled as a team and said a prayer for Hayes. Because sometimes it’s bigger than wins or losses. It’s bigger than basketball. 

Six months earlier, Hayes was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He’s in remission now, and thanks to a bone marrow transplant from his older brother, his risk of relapse is not nearly as high, but it has been a difficult journey for Hayes and his family to say the least. 

“It’s tough seeing a kid that is always so happy and just laid back go through something that, as a parent, you can’t do anything to make it better,” Hayes’ father Scott said. “I’ve definitely drawn inspiration from him because he took it all in stride. He never complained. He shed very few tears.”

“Even though this is a journey we never wanted to go on, there have been so many things that have come about over the last six months that we know that God went before us and fought this battle,” added his mother, Sheena. “We’re going to have such a testimony to tell once this is all said and done because we have been so blessed.”

THE DIAGNOSIS

Back in June, Scott and Sheena were out of town when Hayes got really sick one night. They rushed back to their home in Alexander City and made it in time for Sheena to ride up in the ambulance with Hayes to Children’s Hospital. Something was clearly wrong. 

“Scary doesn’t skim the surface,” Scott said. “I think even before we got back to him, with her medical background, she already knew. We had a pretty good idea of what we’re dealing with.”

“His white blood cell count was 11.6 (earlier that week),” Sheena said. “We knew he possibly had an infection, but we were taking antibiotics. He was having increased stomach pain and chest pain. That just progressed over a six-day period. When they ended up in the ER with him that morning, his white blood cell count was 247.”

Within two hours of arrival, they got the diagnosis. Within 24 hours, Hayes started Chemotherapy.  

Back in Alexander City, Hayes’ two older siblings, Harrison and Harper, woke up the next day at their grandparents’ house where all three stayed the night before and realized Hayes wasn’t there.  

“I know I shouldn’t but I’m always a Googler,” Harper said. “The second anything happens, I’m Googling the symptoms. Leukemia was the first thing that popped up with the symptoms I knew. And something just told me that’s what it was.

“I don’t really remember much from that week – it kind of just all goes together – but I would say that was the scariest time.”

That first week, shortly after Hayes was diagnosed with leukemia, the doctors did some more tests and discovered that he also had an aggressive genetic mutation that would increase the risk of relapse. The best way to handle the mutation was for Hayes to have a bone marrow transplant. 

“It was like one body blow after another,” Scott recalled. 

THE TRANSPLANT

Growing up in the Hunter house, all three siblings were close. Harper, who is about to turn 16, would know better than anybody. She helped take care of both Harrison and Hayes. 

“If they were home alone, Harrison was the ‘babysitter,’ but it was really me,” Harper joked. “I don’t know. I would say they are my best friends. They’re the two people if something happens, I go to them first.”

So, when the family found out Hayes needed a bone marrow transplant, it was no surprise that both Harrison and Harper went that same day and got tested to see if they were a match. It turned out Harper was a 50 percent match while Harrison was a 100 percent match. 

“As soon as I found out, it was absolutely,” said Harrison who started as a freshman at Auburn this fall.  

“I don’t think there are any words to describe it,” Scott said. “We knew that he would have done it. But with him, when he got the call, you could tell by his reaction and his body language that there was no question. He was all in.”

On Sept. 25, just days before Auburn played Oklahoma, they took healthy stem cells from Harrison and injected them into Hayes’ bloodstream to trigger new healthy bone marrow.

“For me, it was easy leading up to it,” Harrison said. “He had the difficult part going in. When it was my turn to go, I was the one who had to go under anesthesia. I woke up and my back hurt for a few days. He had the easy part with that because he just had to sit there. 

“It was kind of like getting blood,” Hayes said. “I’m glad that he did it.” 

The transplant was a success. Harrison recovered in time to attend the Oklahoma game. And Hayes, who went into remission after his first round of Chemotherapy, now had healthy bone marrow thanks to the transplant, suppressing the genetic mutations that might cause a relapse. 

THE SURPRISE

Last Friday, the day before the Purdue game, Hayes sat on a couch surrounded by his parents at an apartment he had been staying at while going through his treatments. The apartment was funded by A-Team Ministries, an organization supported by AUTLIVE. 

Hayes thought he was doing an interview to talk about his story and the impact of AUTLIVE. 

Then came a knock at the door. Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl and senior forward Chaney Johnson, Hayes’ favorite player, walked in and surprised the 10-year-old Tiger fan and his family. 

“Where is Hayes? Come on, man. Let’s go!” Pearl yelled as he walked in. “We’ve got a ball game to go to tomorrow.” 

“That’s kind of how I figured out who it was,” Hayes said. “I couldn’t see him, but when I heard him yelling, I knew exactly who it was.”

Pearl handed Hayes an envelope labeled “Top Secret.” Inside were tickets to the Auburn-Purdue basketball game at Legacy Arena the next day. Hayes had been watching the Tigers on TV all season. This was his first chance to get to see them play in person. 

Just getting to see Johnson in person at the apartment was eye-opening for Hayes. 

“I expected him to be tall, but I was barely above his waist,” he said. 

Before Pearl and Johnson left, Pearl offered some encouragement to Hayes. 

“By doing all this, you’re just giving God a chance to bless you and get you through this,” Pearl told him. “You’re going to come Auburn someday and be an Auburn Man just like your brother.”

“It just shows you what type of person he is and where his heart is,” Sheena said about Pearl.

TOGETHER AGAIN

On Saturday, Hayes cheered on every Auburn dunk and 3-pointer from his seat behind the bench. After the game, Johnson led him to the prayer circle on court. Cardwell took him to the locker room. He got his custom orange and blue shoes signed by the players. It was a day he will never forget.

It was a day the whole family will never forget. They were together again – laughing, crying, having fun. 

The last six months have taken their toll on the Hunter family. Scott and Sheena had been going back-and-forth with Hayes to Birmingham. Harrison was trying to enjoy his freshman year at Auburn. And Harper was home in Alexander City staying with her grandparents a lot of the time. 

They all had been counting down the days to January when Hayes would get to go home for good, but they got an early present when doctors told Hayes he could come home for Christmas. 

“After having everybody so spread out, having everybody back home – it’s like a sense of peace,” Scott said. “You can’t really describe it. It’s like you can exhale now. Just being able to be there together again.”

“I think I’m excited for different things this Christmas,” added Harper. “Just seeing my family. It’s always usually gifts and all that, but this year it’s all getting to sit in a room together – something a lot of people take for granted. But just being in the living room together is what I’m excited for.”

Through all the ups and downs of the last six months, the Hunter family never lost faith. 

Now they do have a story to tell. One of hope. One of perseverance. One of faith. 

“Through all this, there’s nothing you can do but leave it up to God,” Harrison said. “Having to do that and having to go through this test – with the blessings that we’ve had laid out to us – it just makes you see God’s hand in things.”