BUFFALO, N.Y. — "My saying now is ... I may have lost four Super Bowls, but I kicked cancer's butt four times!"
Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly is a lucky man, and he knows it. Doctors originally thought his oral cancer was incurable. At best, his survival rate was around 2 percent.
I told Jim that his story really is a story of a medical miracle.
"Ain't no doubt about it, never thought that before, but have now," Kelly said. "I remember one doctor said to my brother, I know they are Christians, and believe in miracles. Well, he's going to need a miracle to live."
It was back in 2013 when Kelly was initially diagnosed with mouth cancer. A tumor that started on the upper gum line was removed. Doctors thought it was all clear, but then as cancer often does, it came back.
The cancer spread to some facial nerves into the jaw line, then right under his eye and very close to his brain.
It was now 2014, and Kelly was in the battle for his life, a battle more difficult and more serious than any football game he ever played.
Dr. Dhiren Shah, who was Kelly's radiation oncologist, recalled, "I see Jim's name on the file, I said, 'Oh gosh, what's going on?' I look over the records and scans, and suddenly my whole mood dropped. I realized how serious this was. Truly, at that point, what we found. It was incurable."
It was deathly serious, with pain described as 10 times a normal tooth ache, all day, and all night.
"He suffered a lot. The pain Jim went through was indescribable, the severity of pain, this nerve was destroyed by the tumor. So, severe most people would quit. Jim didn't quit," Dr. Shah said.
Jim didn't quit.
He was determined to survive. He had everything to live for.
"To begin with, it was my wife, thank God for her, my two daughters, every time they walked into my hospital room at ECMC. Not one time did they ever have a frown on their face, Their attitude was to make my day better by their presence. For me, that made me fight to beat this," Kelly said.
The Western New York community also rallied around the Kelly family, even wearing "Kelly Tough" T-shirts to show their support.
But despite Jim's "Kelly Tough" exterior, there were private times when even he doubted if he had what it takes to beat it.
"I remember one night in NY, it was not good," recalled his wife, Jill. "He's like, 'I can't keep doing this.' I was like, 'Oh yes, you can, because its not your strength, it's about what God can do.' "
Jim added: "God had a plan for me; injuries, losing four Super Bowls, son diagnosed. And, as I look back on it, so many things were a pivotal part of not giving up, but it always started with my faith, and it wasn't always good back then. Jill, she sought God from Day 1. I ran."
Jim's battle was still not over.
In 2018, doctors in New York City performed a 12-hour surgery to remove a new cancer from his jaw and neck. They then reconstructed his upper jaw with bone from his femur.
I asked Jim about a picture with his daughter Erin. The picture that so many saw on social media that showed us all how serious this battle was.
"I remember the picture. It's the cover of her book," Kelly recalls. "That made me feel and never want to give up. It was for them. I knew how much I loved my family and that was huge."
Jim had four chemotherapy sessions, and nearly three dozen difficult radiation treatments. For every single one of them, Jill lead a prayer for the entire team. "We would pray before every treatment Jim ever got," she said. "And obviously, people were in the room, so it was Dr. Shah who asked to join, and I said of course, so then everyone joined in on praying."
This picture was taken after Jim's final radiation treatment 10 years ago, a day Jim said he will never forget.
Now Jim travels the country as a motivational speaker, paying it forward and hoping to make a difference in the lives of others.
"There's only one person who knows all our days, including yours, Scott. That's the good Lord above, and I know that, so I take it one day at a time. If the good Lord decides tomorrow is my day, I will go out with a smile on my face, because I've lived a life many people would love to live," Kelly said.
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