RICHLAND, Mich. — Baseball. It's a sport that Julian Harris has been playing since he was four years old.
All that hard work finally paid off. Last year, he committed to Western Michigan University to play baseball after high school.
"it was probably the best day in my life," said Julian. "We walked out of that office and I was so grateful for the opportunity. I felt so comfortable there. They brought me in as one."
But, after it seemed like his future was set, Julian suddenly had to adjust his plans after getting a scary diagnosis six weeks ago.
"Testicular cancer," said Julian. "It's a rare form called Choriocarcinoma. Something you kind of have to act on pretty quickly."
But they caught it early. Doctors were able to remove the testicle that had the cancer and replace it with an implant.
Although the cancer was isolated to just his testicle, Julian now has to make weekly trips to Indianapolis for Chemotherapy, being treated by the same doctor who treated Lance Armstrong during his diagnosis, Dr. Larry Einhorn.
"It's just something you never would think about as being a kid and so active and so ongoing day to day, that it's, it's life changing immediately," said Julian.
The diagnosis hasn't derailed his plans for college, or even playing in his senior season.
"This is something that will actually make me stronger, make me more resilient, make me more focused, and I think that is a blessing and a curse," said Julian.
He now advocates for men doing frequent self-checks and emphasizes the importance of catching cancer early.
"I would say to everybody, you know, checking checking your body parts every six months just to make sure you don't feel any tenderness or soreness or bumps anywhere that just seem unusual, because those can grow quickly," said Julian. "And then it can be an issue, a bigger issue than it needed to be."
Julian should be wrapping up his final chemotherapy session on Jan. 9.
Friends and family have started a fundraiser for Julian as he travels back and forth from Indianapolis. You can find that here.
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