Family, friends rally for lodi teen battling cancer

Kevin Johnson Boyle poses with is skateboard in front of his home in Lodi. Kevin, 15, has stage 3 cancer. The tubes on his chest are called implantable ports and are used for his chemotherapy. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

Family, friends rally for lodi teen battling cancer

They're hoping he won't lose his leg

By Layla Bohm
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Saturday, April 12, 2008 7:43 AM PDT

Comments (4 comment(s))

Kevin looks like a typical 15-year-old boy: His brown hair sticks out from beneath a darker brown cap, and his mother often tells him to pull up his sagging jeans.

He prefers a mechanics class at Tokay High School, because it doesn't require much writing. For fun, he hangs out with skateboarding friends or surfs the Internet.

But now Kevin Johnson Boyle's life has another side to it. He just started chemotherapy in an effort to fight stage 3 cancer that has eaten into the bones of his left leg.

He doesn't want to think about the fact that he could lose his leg, though he did look at prosthetics on the Internet — "I didn't like that at all," he said Friday.

As if that's not enough, last week he met his biological father for the first time. But that event has actually been overshadowed by the cancer.

Since he was diagnosed last month, Kevin's relatives and friends have tried to do what they can for his family. Family members set up a Web site to raise donations to help with co-payments and gas money to a San Francisco hospital, and neighbors are organizing a yard sale for next weekend on Dartmoor Circle.

"It's heartbreaking because we're parents, we have children," said Dora Spigelmire, who with her husband Stan distributed yard sale fliers in the neighborhood.

Kevin Johnson Boyle sits on his skateboard in front of his home in Lodi. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

They've gathered items and won't put price tags on the goods. Instead, they're just asking people to take items and make a donation. All money goes to Kevin's family, Spigelmire said.

Kevin's mother, Aimee Harrington, is grateful for the help and said she wished she could return the favor.

But she's plenty busy learning things, like how to take her son's blood and when to clean the tubes that criss-cross his abdomen and pump chemotherapy into his body. She's also a wife and mother to both Kevin and Daniel, 10.

And she has to work at least 24 hours a week to keep the health insurance that covers Kevin's costly treatment. That can get tricky, because it's an all-day trip to take Kevin to the children's hospital at University of California, San Francisco.

It all started more than a year ago, though nobody knew it at the time.

Kevin had complained about leg pain, and his mother and doctors assumed he'd hurt himself skateboarding.

Harrington took him to an orthopedic doctor more than once, but ankle X-rays showed nothing wrong. He even borrowed crutches from his great-aunt who lives next door.

"He would call me from school and ask me to bring him Advil," Harrington said. "I knew something was wrong when he started turning yellow."

Kevin Johnson Boyle's left leg is swollen from cancer. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

Finally a larger X-ray showed something wrong, closer to Kevin's knee.

In March, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer.

He started chemotherapy, which he said made him feel "nasty" at first. His leg is swollen but it doesn't hurt now, and his mother is thankful that the cancer hasn't spread to his lungs, which can happen if left untreated.

But the experience has obviously taken its toll on Kevin, who doesn't smile often. He doesn't ride his skateboard much these days, and even said he's going to give it away.

His blue eyes almost have a vacant look when he says in a flat voice: "I just want to get it over with."

His little brother, though, has enough questions for both of them. Daniel barraged a reporter with questions about cancer — questions that even Kevin's mother doesn't know how to answer.

What happens if cancer comes back, he asks. Do people die from cancer?

The odds for Kevin are high because his form of cancer is known to professionals. He's receiving treatment at a good hospital that studies others who have the same form of cancer.

Kevin Johnson Boyle, left, looks toward his mother, Aimee Harrington, as they talk about Kevin's cancer, at their home Friday. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

In the meantime, he met his biological father for the first time last week. They awkwardly shook hands and Kevin said he felt a bit embarrassed, but they had a second visit planned for Friday night.

His teachers at Tokay High are also on his side, and one brought him a parakeet. Another brought a coupon for free ice cream. Students had also planned to pass a collection bucket for Kevin at a battle of the bands Friday night. Unfortunately, that event was canceled because of a fight at the Tokay campus earlier in the day.

Karen Johnson, the great-aunt who lent him crutches, hopes that perhaps one lesson can come out of the experience, and she wants others to think twice.

"If there's a continual problem with a part of the body, please look higher or lower," she said.

How to help

Neighbors are organizing a yard sale for next Saturday and Sunday, starting at 8 a.m. on the south end of Dartmoor Circle, off Century Boulevard across from Tokay High School. All proceeds and donations go to Kevin's family.

Family members have set up a Web site where donations may be made online with a credit card or a PayPal account. The site is at forkevin.chipin.com.

Osteosarcoma at a glance

Osteosarcoma is the most common type of cancer that occurs in bone. The cancer usually develops near the ends of bones around the knees.

The cancer is most common between the ages of 10 and 25 and is treated with chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy.

Common symptoms include pain and swelling or tenderness in the affected area. Pain tends to increase over time.

The cancer can spread beyond the bone into nearby tissues, such as muscle, tendons and fat. Cancer cells can also break away from the main tumor and spread through the bloodstream to other bones, the lungs or other internal organs in a process known as metasis.

Sources: American Cancer Society, www.cancerindex.org

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Interesting wrote on Apr 17, 2008 8:53 AM:

" My prayers go out to you and your family! Can anyone tell me what date the yard sale is? It said "next weekend" does that mean the 19th and 20th? Just want to be sure that I don't miss it! "

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