A Wish Come True
By: Brittany Bevis
In June 2016, 15-year-old, equestrienne Maddie White felt a pain in her leg. Thinking perhaps she’d torn a tendon while riding, her parents made her an appointment to visit a doctor. What they discovered on the x-ray was unthinkable.
“June 17th was probably one of the scariest days of my life,” Maddie says. “He took x-rays of my leg and told us we needed to go to the hospital ASAP. When we arrived at the hospital, they had to take a sample of the mass they found. The next day we found out it was osteosarcoma, a rare and vicious type of bone cancer.”
The survival rate for this type of cancer isn’t promising, and the chances go down even more if it spreads to the lungs. However, even if it stays contained within a mass, the harsh chemotherapy necessary to eradicate the fast growing cells is harsh. According to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, if the disease is localized, the long term survival rate is 70-75%. If it has already spread to the lungs or other bones, the survival rate drops dramatically to 30%. Luckily, Maddie’s cancer stayed isolated within her right tibia.
Maddie started riding horses at the age of 10 and focused primarily on Western events like Barrel Racing. About a year ago, she began Jumping and automatically fell in love with the new discipline. Shortly after she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, she was only able to ride once a month. Then, she had another setback on September 19th, the day before surgery on her leg was scheduled to take place.
“My surgeon said he found another spot on my tibia that could be cancerous. He told me he had to remove part of my tibia, which meant another surgery. September 20th was the day I had surgery to remove my fibula and part of my tibia. Some of the risks of the surgery were scary, because there was a chance I was never going to walk again.”
Ten, long hours later, Maddie received word from her surgeon that the operation went even better than expected. Later that week, she was able to return home and received even more good news that the second spot the doctors had found on her tibia wasn’t cancerous.
Maddie’s next surgery was scheduled for October 3rd. Now, doctors planned to put a rod alongside her partially removed tibia in order to secure her leg. “I had to walk with a walker for a month. I remember walking by myself for the first time, and it just felt amazing, but I still had to wait until January to ride.”
But then came 20 weeks of chemotherapy. “After each chemo treatment, my body deteriorated even more. Side effects of the chemo were harsh. I had to be on liquid food that went into my port, which is like a permanent IV. I caught viruses easily because my immune system was giving up. I was constantly in the hospital.”
Finally, on March 16th, Maddie had her final chemo treatment. “My body was weak, but I made it. Two days later, the best thing that could ever happen to me happened.”
The Make a Wish Foundation gifted Maddie with an 8-year-old, Thoroughbred gelding named Cosnochta, aka “Cos.” “The second I met Cos I automatically felt a connection, and it’s been growing stronger every day. The past 10 months have been anything but normal, but when I got Cos, it brought some of the normalcy back to my life. Now, I’m back into Jumping with my new horse, and I have plans to show in the fall.”
We did a bit of research and it turns out that Cos was formerly known by a different name, Barefoot Mailman. He started out his career as a racehorse, but was later placed into the Take2 Second Career Thoroughbred Program, an organization that holds competitions specifically for off-the-track Thoroughbreds. That’s where he got his start in Jumping. Now, he’s helping Maddie make a triumphant return to the show pen after a long year spent battling a deadly disease.
Reflecting on the last year of her life, Maddie doesn’t feel mad, angry, or hurt. Quite the opposite, she feels grateful and blessed. “I just remember it could be much worse, and I’m blessed to have a treatable cancer.” During her time spent in the hospital, Maddie connected with other teenagers and young children with cancer and decided she wanted to help out. In December of last year, she started a Go Fund Me page in an effort to raise money to buy toys for Christmas. She raised $10,000.
“I got this little girl named Zoey a kitchen. When she saw me, she thought I was her sister because she’d never seen anyone that looked like her (bald). I could see that these kids feel very alone, so I got to know them and spend time with them and grew very close to them. I’m just happy I can make a difference in their lives.”
