Sometimes you don’t figure out how strong you are until you have to be. Sometimes the most special moments blossom from those trying times.
Moments before her son’s football game representing Bridgewater-Raynham against Waltham Thursday night, Jenna Lyons had to deliver heartbreaking news: her latest scans showed the cancer that has been in her bones since 2021 had likely spread further.
She apologized to her son Colton — not for having cancer, but for having to tell him right before he stepped onto the field. When she asked if the news would get in his head, he looked at her and said, “Nah, it’s all for you. Something good has to come out of all of this.”
A few hours later, Colton scored his first varsity touchdown.
For Lyons, the moment was overwhelming. Colton, a sophomore who has mostly played junior varsity while dressing for varsity since his freshman year, had scored many touchdowns before, but never on the varsity level. Thursday’s game was especially significant — it was the first playoff game, with a large crowd in attendance.
“I couldn’t even scream like I usually do,” Lyons said. “I stood there with hot tears pouring down my face and my heart swelling out of my chest.”
She had opened the scan results just moments before driving Colton to the school and hadn’t planned to tell him. But he noticed her demeanor had changed. After years of fearing the cancer would spread beyond her bones, the results suggested it had progressed to her adrenal glands, lymph nodes throughout her abdomen, and other areas. Doctors plan to biopsy the new sites because the cancer can mutate.
Lyons has lived with severe pain for more than five years. The disease has left her with innumerable tumors along her spine, clavicle, scapula, sternum, rib cage, hip bones, pelvis, pubic bone, and the tops of her femurs. She has suffered multiple broken bones and has two 6-inch screws through her pelvis. A former NICU nurse in Boston, she is no longer able to work. Last year her out-of-pocket medical expenses exceeded $30,000, and she now earns less than 25 percent of what she would make if she were healthy.
Her best friend is running the Boston Marathon in April in her name to benefit Mass General Cancer Center, where Lyons receives treatment. A GoFundMe for the family has also been set up.
In her social media post, Lyons reflected on the weight her children have carried. “I spend so much time worrying about what my cancer is doing to my children,” she wrote. “And somehow, in the middle of all of it, my son found a way to give me hope when I was supposed to be the one giving it to him.”
She added: “I wish he never had to be this strong.”
If you would like to donate to Jenna’s GoFundMe, click here.
To donate to her friend’s Boston Marathon run, click here.
