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In the Loop: Heading for home in fight against cancer
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Four-year-old Knox Olafson was recently given the opportunity to run the bases at Target Field, thanks to Brighter Tomorrows. His trek around the bases stole the hearts of those who got to witness it.
Minnesota Twins fans who attended the game at Target Field on July 23 may not have gotten to see their team win, but those who hung around after the final out were treated to something special. A group of pediatric cancer patients took the field and ran the bases thanks to the Twins and Brighter Tomorrows, a nonprofit organization that helps families affected by childhood cancer.
Among them was Knox Olafson, a four-year-old from Warroad, Minnesota, and sentimental favorite, who's undergoing chemotherapy treatments at Mayo Clinic. Young Knox is fighting osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer that materialized in one of his knees.
Knox's mom, Christy Olafson, tells us Knox's treatment plan has also included rotationplasty. During this procedure, surgeons removed his tumor and the piece of bone it was attached to. Then they rotated his leg 180 degrees and re-attached it. His ankle joint became his new knee joint to give him greater future mobility using a prosthetic device. "He'll be able to get a prosthetic once chemo is done," Christy tells us. "But his care team first needs to make sure there's been enough healing in the bone, and chemo can obviously slow that down." Read the rest of Knox's story.
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This story originally appeared on the In the Loop blog.
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