A little over a month ago, my family received some life altering news.

My father was newly diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

I had learned of the news when I went over to my parents house after he had come back from an appointment with a doctor. I saw my father cry and that's when it hit me - this was real.

I’ve rarely ever seen him cry, so I knew that he was hurting from the news. My whole family gathered around and prayed that the cancer had not spread to his organs.

We had known  that there was a possibility of cancer due to a huge swollen lymph node that he had in his neck.

After about two months of bouncing around from doctor to doctor, they were able to surgically remove a piece of the tumor to confirm that it was, in fact, cancer.

Initially, it was tough to grasp the concept of cancer.

Normally when you hear the C word, automatically you start to assume the worst and get flooded with different emotions. I had never heard of this type of cancer, which led me to fear the worst possibility.

After doing more research, I was relieved to hear that this type of cancer does have very good options in terms of treatment.

Once my father went through some initial testing, we learned that the cancer was isolated to the tumor in his neck. Thankfully, it did not spread to other organs which could have caused for a more difficult treatment plan.

The treatment that he is undergoing is eight rounds of chemotherapy, which are every two weeks. Thankfully, he has finished the first treatment and responded well to the chemo.

Educating myself on this type of cancer helped me get a better understanding on how to help him fight this terrible condition. I learned most importantly that I needed to be there in any way he needed me.

My family has been in St. Louis for the last 23 years. When I was two, my mother and father moved to St. Louis to be close to my mother’s family. I grew up in St. Louis and moved away for college

I am a big believer in things happen for a reason and I think that coming back here was more than just to be able to play soccer in front of friends and family. With my father having cancer, the stars aligned to allow me to be here.

I have always been very close to my family, which led me to think about doing something that would show that I am here to fight cancer with him. I decided to use my middle name (Ignacio, my father’s name) to show that we are in this together.

I contacted my equipment manager asking if he could change the name on the back of my jersey to Ignacio. I initially told my brothers and mother that I was planning on changing my name on the kit.

They agreed that my father would find that to be very special.

With the league’s approval, I was able to make the switch. On July 14th, I walked out with the team for the pregame national anthem.  

My father was able to see that his name was now on the back of my jersey. He told my mom that he found that really touching that I would do that for him.

Now every time I put on that jersey, I get a new sense of motivation for playing for my family especially my father. He has always been a big fan of watching me play the sport that he played when he was younger.

In addition, I have pledged to keep my hair very short as long as he is doing treatment. My father was upset with knowing that he’d lose his hair due to the treatment. I wanted to show him that he wasn’t going to be the only one that had little to no hair. As much as I love having longer hair, this was a greater cause that was worth the small sacrifice.

The whole process has led me to not take for granted all the small things in life. One minute my father was healthy, and the next he is fighting a potential life-threatening disease.

My father is a fighter and with the support of my family, he will be able to persevere in this time of adversity.

I’m glad I can be here for him now the way he has always been there for me.