Kyle Osborne

It changed everything. In 2016, Kyle Osborne was a high school senior in Albuquerque, New Mexico doing the types of things most boys his age enjoy doing. He enjoyed playing basketball and soccer for his school team. His dad Aaron was a pipefitter for 15 years before becoming an estimator. In April, 2016 Kyle’s legs gave out after experiencing back and leg pain. He went to the ER where an MRI found 17 tumors on his spinal sac and brainstem. The diagnosis was almost unbelievable.

He is only one of five people in the world with this type of cancer. Doctors decided to proceed with back surgery, but surgery on his brainstem was too risky. They removed all the tumors they could and Kyle was wheelchair bound after the surgery. He went back five months later for a checkup and an MRI found that all the tumors had completely grown back. Doctors can’t do anything that will make Kyle situation better, and they have told him that the prognosis is terminal and that he does not have much time left. Not even Mayo Clinic or St. Jude were options to battle this type of cancer. Kyle had to miss his prom, so his girlfriend brought prom to him in the hospital. That was just the beginning of some of the many kind acts extended to Kyle.

Kyle’s basketball hero is Lebron James, and Kyle’s wish was to meet him. Station KRQE in Albuquerque aired a story about Kyle and his wish, but as it turned out the Make-A-Wish foundation said Kyle was too old. That prompted a complete stranger by the name of Laura Onorato to start a campaign for Kyle with what she called “a tweet and a prayer.” Her campaign prompted A Special Wish Foundation in Cleveland to contact Kyle’s family. Kyle was told he would be attending game three of the NBA Eastern conference finals! The trip was threatened when Kyle was hospitalized for three weeks with a blood infection. His dad was skeptical of Kyle being able to make the trip to Cleveland, but said Kyle was not giving up on anything. The wish came true, and Kyle met Lebron James, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neil before the game. He even left with a signed jersey from Lebron.

In addition to his medical difficulties, Kyle struggles with other, more simple things. Every day Kyle takes a daily stroll in his wheelchair to the store just to get out of the house. He is able to use a sidewalk for most of the trip, but there is a 1000 foot stretch where he is forced to take his wheel chair on to the road. He petitioned the city of Albuquerque to pave the remaining section, and station KRQE once again stepped in. The land is undeveloped, but the city worked with the property owner to put in an asphalt trail until a sidewalk can be put in when the area gets developed. Kyle’s independence was limited to the distance he could go in his manual wheelchair, and Kyle was looking for something to enable him to travel further so we wouldn’t have to rely on his dad to take him everywhere. “My dad is my only source of transportation,” Kyle wrote. “Having to lift my wheelchair into the back of his truck all the time is starting to hurt his back, but I think I found something that will help him,” he continued. That’s when Kyle discovered the Joseph Groh foundation through his online research. Kyle petitioned the foundation for a recumbent hand powered tricycle, which would provide him with both a form of rehabilitation and mobility. “I have a very rare cancer, and they don’t have anything that will make it better right now,” Kyle told us. “I will keep fighting and trying to improve my future. The exercise and independence this hand peddled trike gives me will make me stronger physically and mentally, which will help me with any trials or other medicines they prescribe which takes a toll on me,” he said.

After receiving the tricycle, Kyle wrote “Thank you so much for the trike! It is amazing and I feel like I can go anywhere I want to. It is perfect, thank you so much.”