Fighter beats testicular cancer, back in cage
Mixed Martial Arts fighter Paul O’Keefe was about to be thrust into the national spotlight in 2009. He was booked…
Mixed Martial Arts fighter Paul O’Keefe was about to be thrust into the national spotlight in 2009. He was booked for a fight to be televised on Showtime.
But after his pre-fight physical, the 6’3″, 265-pound O’Keefe was hit with a blow harder than any opponent in the ring could have delivered – testicular cancer.
Now back in fighting shape. O’Keefe fights Adam “Bomb” Padilla for the World Fighting Federation Heavyweight Championship on Saturday night at Salt River Fields, Arizona.
O’Keefe said he always enjoyed working with children. And after his diagnosis, he found working with them helped occupy his time and mind.
He took a job at Canyon State Academy in Queen Creek, where he worked with troubled kids.
It was there he met one boy in particular who really tugged at his heartstrings. So much so that O’Keefe adopted the boy.
Because of the adoption, O’Keefe had to resign his position at the academy. He opened a gym in the East Valley, where he works with anyone from children to professional athletes.
Between 7,500 and 8,000 diagnoses of testicular cancer are made each year in the USA. Over his lifetime, a man’s risk of testicular cancer is roughly 1 in 250. It is the most common cancer in males aged 20–39 years, the period of peak incidence. Testicular cancer has one of the highest cure rates of all cancers: in excess of 90 percent; essentially 100 percent if it has not spread.
Learn more… (audio and text links)
