Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis couldn’t contain high school football player’s positivity

Kenyon Caldwell of downstate Decatur has always radiated a positivity that has inspired his family, even before he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 14 on May 1, 2018.

The night of his diagnosis, it became even more evident that positivity was his superpower — and that it would carry everyone through the battle ahead.

“That night, I went to my room, and I was really about to break down,” said Caldwell’s father, Maurice Caldwell. “He came in my room . . . he was like, ‘I have it, and now we just have to fight.’ ”

After Kenyon had returned to his father’s house one day after helping his mother move, Maurice noticed a lump on Kenyon’s neck. It didn’t hurt; they both assumed it was just a strain from all the heavy lifting. But a hospital visit revealed it wasn’t a pulled muscle. It was cancer.

“I didn’t want to believe it,” Maurice said. “He’s my son. He’s been athletic. He’s been healthy his whole life.”

Football has always been a massive part of life for Kenyon, a self-described “football head” who’s now 15 and a sophomore at Eisenhower High School in Decatur. On the field with his youth team, he was a utility player, getting reps on both the offensive and defensive lines. His favorite position was middle linebacker until his illness sidelined him.

Chemotherapy left him unable to leave his bed some days, and playing football was out of the question. But while the treatments took a severe toll on his physical strength, his mental strength was untouched.

“The biggest thing on my mind was keeping my mom, my dad and my grandma happy,” he said. “It was kind of hard for me because there was this one chemo that was called ‘red death.’ It would just put me through it. Some days I could barely walk.”

Kenyon’s fight would eventually connect him with a role model: Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano. He learned of Pagano’s history with leukemia through Tackle Cancer, a partnership program involving the Bears, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and CDW. In 2012, Pagano took a leave of absence while he was head coach of the Colts to undergo treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia. He has been in remission since.

“You can have a disease like cancer and still do big things,” Kenyon said. “[His story] teaches me to never give up and just keep it on the throttle. Because if you don’t, you can miss out on so many opportunities.”

A year after his original diagnosis, Kenyon is now cancer-free. Next season, his junior year, he plans to return to the football field for Eisenhower.

He used to walk around the house flexing his muscles with a smile that reached both ears — all to make his family laugh.

He still walks around the house the same way. But now, it’s not to make anyone laugh. It’s to show the newfound strength of a boy who fought cancer and won.

“Now, I feel like I have a Superman logo on my chest,” he said.