NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio — September is pediatric cancer awareness month, and in just a few days a junior at North Royalton High School will launch a T-shirt to help the cause -- one he knows all too well.
17-year-old Ryan Kuchta turned his journey dealing with cancer into support for other kids.
“I'm very lucky and thankful to be here,” he said.
In 2018, Ryan's parents couldn’t bear to tell their 12-year-old son he had a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma called t-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma.
They asked their doctor to deliver the news, and Ryan was told to approach his cancer like his favorite sport -- the one he’s played since he was 3years old.
Ryan’s journey became "hockey strong," he says.
"So hockey strong, you have to be tough to play hockey and you have to be tough to battle cancer. I felt like if I stayed active, I could do great things and come back and be able to play hockey. So I kind of made that my mentality that if I keep working, that I'll beat this and that I can get back out there and play with my friends one more time."
With his incredible attitude and support from family and friends, this became about more than just Ryan.
Thanks to “A Special Wish," Ryan was able to sign a one-day contract with the Cleveland Monsters. He also teamed up with Michael Symon to create a special cookie to be sold at a Monsters game, along with “hockey strong” apparel he designed. In all, more than $20,000 was raised to grant wishes for other kids battling life-threatening illnesses.
“We decided that there was a reason that Ryan was diagnosed with cancer and I think Ryan has found that reason for us and he has decided that he’s determined to help other children,” said Ryan's mother, Denise.
His latest project is an update on his “Hockey Strong,” which is designed to raise more money for pediatric cancer research at the Cleveland Clinic.
“A lot of kids are actually diagnosed with cancer and we need to fight for this, and there's more research that goes to adult cancer and there's very little percentage that actually goes to children's cancer. So I think I want to get more people to kind of realize that and that they go support the childhood cancer research, so no kid has to go through what I went through,” Ryan said.
After a two-and-a-half-year battle, Ryan is now cancer-free, but he says his fight is far from over.
“I know how hard it was on me to go through that process for two and a half years almost in the hospital every week, if not every day all the time. So it was very hard on me. So I wanted other kids to not have to be able to do that. I know how bad that was for me, so I want to support childhood cancer research to make kids that they don't have to do that anymore, I know how bad that was.”
