Little League Teams Raise Money For Player Who Just Underwent Rare Cancer Surgery

You can never have enough cancer awareness.

Saturday, March 28th 2015, 7:13 pm

By: News 9


You can never have enough cancer awareness.

So when one town heard of a little girl who needs a rare surgery to rid her of cancer, one little league team stepped up to the plate.

Being a team player is a lesson always taught and thrown around in sports.

So consider Saturday lesson number one for Thomas Jackson and his teammates.

They're playing not for themselves, but for someone that no foul lines can separate.

"Think about Izzy, OK boys? Izzy on three!” The team's coach said.

Izzy is a girl that could likely beat up Thomas.

"She's a rock star," said Christine Jackson, a friend of Izzy and her mom.

But Saturday Izzy wasn't on the diamond and was not beating up boys. Instead, she's in whole a different fight.

"She's a girl that has cancer in her knee and her ankle is going to act like a knee and her foot is going to spin around," said Thomas Jackson, Izzy's friend.

The technical term is Rotationplasty, an extremely rare procedure 7-year-old Izzy just underwent to remove bone cancer in her leg.

3/23/2015 Related Story: Metro Girl To Undergo Rare Cancer Operation

Her knee was removed and her ankle will function as her knee, with the hope that once again she can go face-to-face with Thomas and the boys on any playing field.

"She's determined to beat anything. You stick it in front of her, tell her she can't do it she will prove you wrong every time," said Christine.

This fight has another obstacle; her new leg will cost nearly $20,000.

So to help raise money and awareness, even the opposing team sported yellow ribbons and anything else yellow.

Just hours after her nine hour surgery, Izzy was awake and moving her leg.

Best of all, she became cancer-free.

A true rock star who has a team and just about the entire town of Luther rallying around her as she rallies back to health.

"It takes a tribe. It does. And we're a tribe," said Christine.

The true meaning of being a team player is having each others' back no matter what.

Izzy is expected to be on crutches by next week. And after hearing her story, the manager of the baseball fields is donating all of Saturday's entrance fees to Izzy's fund.

View Izzy's GoFundMe account.

View Izzy's Facebook page.

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