Children With Cancer: Coach Dave Rose and the BYU Men’s Basketball Team Pay it Forward

Ryan Allred, founder of the Ryan’s Lion Organization, and Coach Dave Rose, Head Coach of the BYU Men’s Basketball Team

This December, The Ryan’s Lion Organization was privileged to team up with The Children’s Christmas Cancer Foundation, Coach Dave Rose and the Brigham Young University Men’s Basketball Team to help provide a little bit of holiday cheer to hundreds of children and their families who are fighting a battle with cancer. It was pretty heady stuff to be in the same room with people the likes of Coach Rose, CCCF Founder Mac Boyter and even Jimmer Fredette. But I have to confess that even though Jimmer Fredette was in the room, I spent most of my time talking to little kids, most only a few years younger than I am, who understand courage–I mean REALLY understand courage.

I met one of my first lion recipients, who had lost a leg to bone cancer at age 7. I listened to the father of Devin Harris, the young man across the table from me. This 14-year-old had been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer at age 3 months. He lost his eyesight due to the tumor and spent the first three years of his life going through chemotherapy. Recently the cancer has returned–an even more aggressive form this time, and their 14-year-long race against the clock will soon come to an end. “We had 10 good years though,” Devin said, referring to the ten year stretch in the middle when he wasn’t going through chemotherapy. The family has been able to accept the fact that this time, the cancer isn’t survivable. They are just trying to enjoy each new day. You don’t spend an hour in a room with people like that and not come away changed.

Now for the irony: Coach Rose and his wife, Cheryl, have been supporting the Children’s Christmas Cancer Foundation for years. But it wasn’t until 2009 that this Christmas event took on new importance because Coach Rose himself had a battle to fight. He was diagnosed with a rare pancreatic cancer. In an address to the students and faculty at BYU, Coach Rose explained what he has learned as a result:  Enjoy the Journey.

Consumed with his responsibilities as head coach, Rose says he had forgotten how to enjoy the simple things in life. “My children had a hard time buying me Father’s Day gifts because I had no interests beyond basketball. And after 27 years of coaching, the losses were still unbearable. The wins weren’t even that exciting: with each win, I was simply relieved that I had done what I was expected to do,” he said.

His wife ecouraged him to take a much-needed break and join the family on a trip to Disneyland. The trip was all they had hoped it would be, but on the plane flight home, Coach Rose started feeling dizzy and couldn’t sit up. Because there were no pillows available on the plane, a passenger across the aisle offered him her jacket to rest his head on. That was the first lesson Rose’s cancer taught him.

Rose writes, “After the medical personnel came on board, the passengers disembarked, and when they moved me to the stretcher, there was the woman’s jacket. The flight attendants hurried to catch her, but she was gone. I didn’t even know her name, and I didn’t know how to thank her. At the hospital the doctors said I needed emergency surgery and 10 units of blood. I will never know the names of the 10 people whose gifts saved my life. It bothered me that I couldn’t thank them. I wanted those people to know how grateful I was for their acts of service and love. Then it hit me: the only way I could repay them was to be the stranger for someone else.”

And so Coach Rose began to teach himself, his family and his team to look for opportunities to “pay forward” small and simple acts of generosity and kindness. As part of that effort, they continue to meet with children and their families who are fighting the difficult battle against cancer and time. Three great life lessons: Have Courage. Pay it Forward. Enjoy the Journey. That’s what I’m learning from these little blue lions and the people who are helping me spread them out nationwide.

-Ryan L. Allred

Source: BYU Magazine, Winter 2011, Commentary, “Enjoy the Journey.”

A volunteer prepares gift bags with Ryan’s Lions that were given to each family in attendance.

Hundreds of CCCF volunteers help make it possible for families with a child suffering from cancer to have an evening to relax, enjoy dinner together, play games with BYU Basketball players, and load up a few small gifts. Previous to this dinner event, parents of the children are invited (they come without their children) to the “Santa’s Workshop” event. Here, volunteers and donors provide hundreds of free gifts. Parents “shop” for gifts their families might enjoy. Because time and finances are particularly rare commodities for a family battling cancer, this moment of respite is intended to help make the holiday a little brighter.

Mac Boyter and Ryan Allred at the Children’s Christmas Cancer Foundation Family Event

Mac Boyter, founder of the Children’s Cancer Christmas Foundation, was sitting in a meeting one evening when he heard Gordon B. Hinckley say, “It’s not enough to be good. You have to be good for something.” Boyter took that challenge personally and decided to find a way to give charitable service beyond what was expected of him in his local church congregation. From it’s small beginnings, Boyter’s Foundation now serves hundreds of children and their families, not only at Christmastime, but with a summer Hawaiian Luau as well. It was a privilege to meet him. In the background, you can see the “angel tree.” This is a Christmas tree adorned with the photographs of the children who have lost their battle with cancer and passed away during the previous year. Families continue to attend the event even if their child has passed away.

Learn more about the Children With Cancer Christmas Foundation and it’s goals here.