VILSECK, Germany — On what was supposed to be the first day of his senior year of high school, Roger Connolly was in an Amberg hospital being tested for cancer.
Doctors found a malignant tumor on one of his testicles, and soon after Connolly was put under the knife. Then came chemotherapy treatments, which ended on his 18th birthday.
He ended up missing the first quarter of school and losing all his hair.
But when he returned to Vilseck High School two weeks ago, some of his friends went out of their way to make him feel right at home. Five students, including four of his friends from the soccer team, shaved their heads the day before Connolly returned to school.
It was a tough decision.
“We were all going to grow our hair out for our senior year,” Connolly said. “I thought they might back out on the decision to shave their heads.”
They didn’t.
“We didn’t want him to be the only bald kid in school,” said Kevin Pollock, who was joined by Anthony Amabile, Bobby Bohn, Aaron Vernon and Matt Downs. “We wanted to be supportive of Roger, so he wouldn’t feel alone.”
But even in his absence, Connolly still was part of the school.
The tennis team elected him team captain, even though his recovery didn’t allow him to play. The senior class elected him vice president of the student council while he was in the hospital.
Members of the Vilseck community sent him cards wishing him a speedy recovery.
“The community has been very supportive as a whole,” Connolly said. “I got cards every day from friends, family and people I didn’t even know.”
Additionally, the school ordered several hundred “LIVESTRONG” bracelets, which are sold by the Lance Armstrong Foundation (www.laf.org) to raise funds for cancer research. The bracelets sold out the day they arrived.
Connolly’s battle with cancer has opened the eyes of the community to the illness.
“I came back and told everyone in my classes what had happened,” said his mother, Becky Connolly, an English, video production and drama teacher, who took time off to be with her son during his hospital stays. “It really has raised awareness in the community.”
Road to recovery
Roger Connolly said he first noticed a lump on one of his testicles during a regular self-exam.
His energy levels over the summer were very low, and he was taking naps several times a day. He went to the doctor after a sleepless night in which he experienced an extreme, throbbing pain in his groin, he said.
A biopsy showed that the lump was a malignant tumor. Tests showed that the cancer had metastasized to his abdomen. After the cancerous testicle was removed, Connolly went through two cycles of aggressive chemotherapy.
Now, he is slowly recovering from a cold that “knocked him down,” because his immune system was weakened by the chemotherapy, Becky Connolly said.
Pretty heavy stuff for a teenager to deal with, but Roger Connolly is upbeat and confident that he has beat his cancer.
Doctors told him after the surgery and chemotherapy that the cancer appeared to be gone, but he won’t know for sure until he goes in for his three-month check-up in January.
“I’m a little worried about January,” he said. “You can never be too sure, and there’s always a chance it could come back. I feel these doctors know what they are doing, and they said it should be no problem.
“The CT scan (after the chemotherapy) showed that it was totally gone, so that helps keep my hopes high for the check-up.”
