Last summer, Denver University cheerleader Lacey Henderson got a job as a dance instructor and counselor at a summer camp for kids aged ten to seventeen. Not a particularly unusual occupation for a college student on summer break except for one thing; each of the one hundred kids at her camp had suffered the loss of a limb. Sponsored by the Amputee Coalition of America (ACA), the retreat was designed to help them come to terms with their loss. As a role model for kids with disabilities, there could be no one more suitable than 21-year-old Lacey Henderson.
When she was nine, Henderson went to her mother complaining of pain in her right leg. ‘I was limping. I couldn’t flatten my foot or put any weight on it,’ she says. Her mother figured it was growing pains, but when Lacey showed her the two grape-sized lumps at the back of her knee, she made an appointment to see the doctor. ‘Baker cysts,’ said the doctor. ‘Go home, do some stretches, pop a couple of Advil. You'll be fine.'
Two weeks later, the pain had intensified and the lump was as big as a light bulb. An MRI at Presbyterian/Saint Luke’s revealed a synovial sarcoma plus a spot on the lungs. The doctors there ordered an immediate amputation and chemotherapy.
The Hendersons went to Denver Children’s Hospital for a second opinion.
At Children’s, the oncologists prescribed experimental chemotherapy that turned out to be, in Henderson’s opinion, almost worse than the disease. ‘There were lots of complications including kidney and liver damage. A couple of times they thought they’d lost me,' she says. 'But, hey, I’m a tough girl.’
After three rounds of chemo, the Hendersons met with the surgeons. The news was not good. While the spot on her lung had disappeared, the tumor at the back of her knee had only shrunk by 1%. She was offered two options: amputate and have a fighting chance, or do nothing and die.
‘For me, it was a no-brainier,’ Henderson says. ‘I was like, cut it off.’ They amputated the leg six inches above the knee, gave her one final round of chemo, and sent her home with this bit of advice for her parents; ‘Treat her like you would any normal kid.'
‘My dad took my crutches away and got me walking within two months,' Henderson says. 'My mom said, ‘You still have one leg, so hop your ass around that bed and make it.’’
Once she was able to walk, she began throwing herself into every sport imaginable: volley ball, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, soccer, even pole vaulting. In middle school she did tumbling and gymnastics and made the cheer leading squad her freshman year.
Today she’s majoring in Spanish (with a minor in French and International Health) at DU. She’s been invited to train for the US Paralympic ski team, works as a waitress at Abrusci's Italian Eatery in Cherry Creek, and has done fashion modeling for the likes of Quentin Tarentino.
But for all her accomplishments, her stint at last summer’s ACA camp was perhaps the most rewarding. ‘On the last night of camp we were having our final cabin discussion,’ she remembers. ‘My kids were the older girls, and they were worried their disability would keep them from getting a boyfriend.’
Henderson, who in case you’re wondering does have a boyfriend -- ‘one of those boring two-legged people’ -- told her charges, ‘You may be missing an arm or a leg, but you still have a heart. You’re still a complete person.’
Coming as it did from someone who’d lived through all the challenges and who had managed to emerge triumphant, the message came through loud and clear. ‘I could see that I could influence and inspire people with similar disabilities,’ Henderson says. ‘Holy Moley, I can actually change how they think about themselves.’
Lacey Henderson’s philosophy in a nutshell? ‘I’m not disabled. I’ve just got one leg.’
This article posted from Northampton, Mass.
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For more info:
Amputee Coalition of America
Amputees in Hollywood
Synovial Sarcoma
Lacey on YouTube
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