Swinging for the fences: Andrew & Sarah’s story

Sarah

_“I was in Victoria when I got the late-night call from my husband Andrew. ‘Are you sitting down?’ he asked.

He’d been having back pain since a baseball injury four months before, and now a CT scan had shown a crushed vertebra. And also a tumour on his spine.

I FaceTimed him from my boarding gate as they rolled him in for an emergency surgery he might not survive. I cried the whole flight home.

By the time I landed in Toronto, he was awake and already making the doctors and nurses laugh. The day after that, he was on his feet, if unsteady. He was already talking about getting back on the baseball field. At that point, no one was using the word ‘cancer’ yet, so I wasn’t surprised to see him bounce back quickly. Andrew has always been in fantastic shape, and he has the kind of optimism and determination that never falters in tough times.

But then, the next time we spoke to the doctors, the C-word did make an appearance. And it was accompanied by words like ‘rare,’ ‘aggressive,’ and ‘stage 4.’

In the two years since that conversation, it’s been a rollercoaster of surgeries, chemo, radiation, and recurrence. Andrew has kept making incredible gains only to have more setbacks. I know he just wants to be running, jumping, and doing all the things he’s used to being able to do. It drives him crazy that he can’t, and it breaks my heart.

The money side of things is a whole other mess. We’re both self-employed as actors and teachers and writers, which doesn’t exactly set you up well for the financial strain of a health crisis. Andrew hasn’t been able to work for over a year. It’s been hard on our finances and harder on his mental health. If our friends hadn’t set up a GoFundMe for us, I’m not sure how we would have made it this far.

 But there are also parts that are easy. Andrew’s still the guy I fell in love with. He still makes me laugh more than anyone else. He still has the same great attitude. Being there for him through this is the most natural-feeling thing in the world. It’s still easy for us to find joyful moments together, even in this awful chaos. Thinking about the future is hard right now. But we can live in those moments.”

Andrew

“Before the emergency spinal surgery, my surgeon was very frank with me. He said there was a 30% chance I wouldn’t survive the operation. And, if I did wake up, it was a coin flip whether I’d be spending the rest of my life paralyzed. Even in the best-case scenario, he said, it could be years before I was walking properly again.

So I called my wife Sarah, and my parents and brother and sister, and then I let them put me under, hoping for better than the best case. When my eyes opened again, the very first thing I did was try to wiggle my toes. They wiggled. Things were looking up.

I was still in the hospital when tests came back on the tumour they’d removed from my spine. Stage 4 cancer. It turns out baseball had saved my life. It was a lingering baseball injury that had led to the CT scan that revealed the tumour. And it was my physical fitness that saw me through surgery intact.

But before I could get back to the gym or the baseball diamond, I had to relearn how to walk. With Sarah’s help and encouragement, I was back on my feet faster than the doctors thought possible. Through cancer treatment as well — even when the cancer came back in my hip, knocking me on my ass again — Sarah has been there every step of the way. She’s always been my number one cheerleader, and this ordeal has only taught us to love each other more deeply.

I’m surrounded by people who care about me, and that’s what keeps me moving toward the things I still hope to achieve. As an actor, I want to get back in front of the camera and re-immerse myself in the TV and film community that’s been so very kind to me and Sarah through all of this. I also want to give back to places like the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook. Everyone has been so generous, and I’m eager to be well enough to start paying that generosity forward. And man do I want to play baseball again.

My oncologist says he’s seen two people beat this cancer before. I didn’t ask out of how many. I’m not a percentages guy. I’m a home run hitter. I see a fence and I’m told two other people have put a ball over it? I’m gonna be the third.”

Check here to donate to Andrew and Sarah’s GoFundMe.