Bradshaw Strong

Gunnar Bradshaw is sitting on his parents' front porch, resting in an old barber chair, shirt off, shoes off, a bowl of homemade organic chicken noodle soup on his lap. He eats what he can these days, which isn't much; chemotherapy has a way of making food taste terrible and making people nauseated.

Every 15 minutes or so, a truck drives by and the occupants honk or holler to Gunnar, a 20-year-old Winter Garden resident who learned earlier this month that he has bone cancer. He likes to keep to himself, so this sudden attention makes him uncomfortable.

Ever since the West Orange community learned the resident — an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University senior on a baseball scholarship — was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, social-media sites such as Facebook and GoFundMe have been filled with updates on his condition. Family and friends have stepped up and organized a series of fundraisers to help his parents, Ronnie and Staci Bradshaw, with mounting medical bills.

THE START OF 29 WEEKS OF HELL

Gunnar is a second baseman for the Embry-Riddle Eagles, and when he started having knee pain two months ago, he attributed it to baseball, maybe an issue with his meniscus. He iced his right knee twice a day and kept pain relievers in his system.

“I kept powering through it, kept playing,” he said.

He finally had his trainer look at it, and the two began working on the swollen knee.

When he went home for the summer in early May, he went to West Orange High School to visit his old coach, Jesse Marlo, and to hit the ball with some of the high school players. He noticed his right leg was shaking.

A few days later, when he was playing golf, the same thing happened.

His father insisted they pay a visit to the Sports Medicine Institute, in Clermont, and Gunnar was scheduled for an immediate MRI scan. The family was called back to the doctor’s office — after a long Memorial Day weekend — and was told it wasn’t his knee, but, in fact, his femur.

A growth had been discovered on his thigh bone, and the doctor said it nearly wasn’t detected on the MRI because the scan concentrated on his knee.

The Bradshaws held out hope that this was simply a benign growth, and their son continued with his scheduled four-day fishing trip with his buddies.

“It was like a last hurrah before 29 weeks of hell,” Gunnar said.

After his mini vacation, Gunnar and his parents headed to UF Health Shands Hospital, in Gainesville, last week for a battery of tests and scans.

On Tuesday, June 13, a doctor took the Bradshaws into a private room to talk.

“As soon as I saw the surgeon’s face, I knew,” Staci Bradshaw said. “I knew.”

With the diagnosis of osteosarcoma, life changed for the family.

“When I finally woke up and they walked in and Mom was bawling, I knew,” Gunnar said.

SAVE HIS LIFE … THEN HIS LIMB

“I didn't think this would ever happen to me,” said Gunnar, who will turn 21 in two weeks. “You don't even think about cancer at 20 years old.”

He is facing 10 weeks of chemotherapy, which will hopefully shrink the tumor, followed by the removal of about eight inches of his femur and a full knee replacement. After that, he faces 19 more weeks of chemo.

“The doctor said right now the goal is to save his life and then his limb,” Staci Bradshaw said. “The doctor said, ‘We will get him as near to dead as possible and then bring him back.’”

Friends and neighbors have shown tremendous support since the diagnosis, the Bradshaws said.

“We are overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support from the community,” Staci Bradshaw said. “It has been amazing. It's a blessing. … It’s very easy (for us) to give, and it’s hard to receive.”

“It’s very humbling,” Ronnie Bradshaw added.

Several of Gunnar’s good friends shaved their heads in a showing of solidarity. His dad did, too. Gunnar and Lane Cross, who had planned to get baptized this summer, bumped up their plans and a baptism was held in Lake Butler the weekend before he left for Gainesville for his first treatment.

Soon after the diagnosis, longtime family friend Rena Cross showed up with a hand sanitizer station to place near their front door. On Sunday evening, Lisa Combs delivered a warm chunk of roast.

Doctors recommended that Gunnar go on an all-organic diet. He must avoid acidic foods and raw meat, and the only soda he is allowed is Dr Pepper.

“They said this cancer doesn’t play well with others,” Staci Bradshaw said.

Organic food can be pricy, and the family is hoping to find someone willing to sponsor his diet until he’s cancer-free.

He’s had trouble eating anything since his first rounds of chemo last week.

“Food sounds delicious, but then you go to eat it and you just can't,” Gunnar said. “Food tastes different. I’m nauseous. I can barely get anything down. Nothing sounds good.

I could eat the whole fridge before.”

He said it’s hard to think normally, as if he has a bad migraine. Sounds, smells and light bother him. Watching television makes his head hurt. Saturday night was rough, he said, and he didn’t sleep at all because of stomach and head pain, nausea, aches and irritability.

On July 5, he will return to Shands Hospital for another chemotherapy round.

“I get hit hard when I go back for three weeks,” he said. “When one bag is empty, they put another bag up.”

College plans have been put on hold while Gunnar goes through treatment. He was a three-year letterman and two-year All-Metro baseball player at West Orange and is attending Embry-Riddle on a baseball scholarship. He has two years left of his scholarship and still plans to get in a year of his master’s degree after graduating with a bachelor’s in business administration with a focus on management.

WAYS TO HELP

Staci Bradshaw has had to quit work to be with her son, so the family’s income will decrease. Meanwhile, medical expenses and those related to traveling and staying in Gainesville during Gunnar’s treatments will continue to rise. They still are paying for his college apartment.

An email address has been set up for anyone interested in inquiring about making a donation: [email protected].

Donations can also be made at gofundme.com/bradshawstrong39. Longtime friend Roni Waller set up the account to help with expenses. As of Monday afternoon, donations had surpassed $7,000.

Any money left over after Gunnar’s treatments will be donated to another family with an osteosarcoma diagnosis, the family said.

“I believe the GoFundMe account took off so quickly because although Winter Garden has drastically grown over the years, (our families) have been here before it did so and we still maintain that small-town family atmosphere through these friendships,” Waller said. “Gunnar has always been like a second son to me.”

Contact Amy Quesinberry at [email protected].