Skip to main content.

Randy's Story 

Hi. My name is Randy, I am 17 years old and a junior in high school. On November 21, 2012 (1st grade & 7 years old), I was out a recess playing soccer. I fell and it really hurt my neck. I told my mom when I got home. We had it looked at about a week later because it was still stiff and hurt. We were told it would get better; it was just a sore neck from the fall. I continued to do my normal active stuff, but my neck stayed stiff, it just didn't seem to get better.

After Christmas we went out of town. That's when things started to get a little worse. When we got back into town, we were finally able to get the doctor to approve me to have an MRI. I was scared but thought it was pretty cool to do. We got a call from the doctor that night telling us to go straight to the emergency room because I had a fractured vertebra. 

I had more x-rays and scans, and it was determined that my C5 vertebrae was completely crushed and missing. I had many doctors that visited me and after two days in the ICU, we were told that I had Langerhans Cells Histiocytosis (LCH). I would eventually have surgery that week to rebuild my vertebrae and plate my C4-C6. I spent a total of eight days in ICU before I came home with a new neck. I remember the doctor telling me that I was going to be the coolest kid because I could tell everyone I broke my neck and survived because it should have killed me or left me paralyzed from the neck down. 

The next few years I struggled with my health in a lot of different areas, saw a lot of doctors, had a lot of x-rays and scans, and got poked way too many times.

I am happy to say that this past January we celebrated my 10-year anniversary of my diagnosis. I have been blessed to be able to be an extremely active kid. I raced bicycles for many years, played soccer, fell in love with playing baseball and just a few years ago, decided to pursue playing golf and hope to continue on with golf in college and to earn my PGA player's card. Life with Histio was not a fun road, nor was it easy, but I am thankful that I have overcome and can show other Histio warriors that they can overcome too.

If you'd like to make a donation to this event in honor of Randy, please click on the donate button below. Thank you.