High school freshman Lilly Holmes would much rather be serving on the volleyball court or pinning an opponent on the wrestling mat, instead she is taking her battle against osteosarcoma in stride. Lilly is anticipating a rotationplasty soon, which involves her surgeon removing the tumors from her leg and ultimately using her ankle to serve as her knee joint.
"Her official diagnosis is metastatic osteosarcoma," said Jennifer Holmes, Lilly's mother. "Her primary tumor is in the distal end of her femur. She has a skip tumor that's higher up in her femur, and a metastatic tumor on her tibia — which, thankfully, will all be removed during surgery. They will remove all of the cancer there. She will have her surgery for the primary tumors in her leg next week, then complete two or three more cycles of chemo, and finally have surgery on her lungs to remove those lesions. After that, she’ll have one or two more cycles of therapy before she’s considered done with chemotherapy."
Lilly and her family said the support they've received from their loved ones, Lilly's teammates, and the entire community where they live has encouraged them through these scary and uncertain times.
"The reality is, she’s such a strong person, and we have such a good support system, and this is such a good place, that really works together to help make us feel a lot more comfortable," said Dustin Holmes, Lilly's dad.
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