DENVER — The celebration on Friday at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children was one that 18-year-old Kody Fung wasn't sure would happen.
After a cancer diagnosis, six rounds of chemotherapy and a knee replacement, Fung was cancer free. He rang the bell in the lobby three times to make it a reality.
"One of the other things that I was sort of feeling is just shock that it’s the day, that the day has arrived," he said.
Fung remembers another day so clearly. It was the day last summer that a doctor said the tumor in his knee was bone cancer.
Fung had been feeling knee pain for a few months, but he thought it was an injury from competitive swimming. Osteosarcoma was not what he expected at 17 years old.
"That was definitely a world-stopping experience," he said. "It almost felt like everything around me just paused for a second in time there."
But Fung realized life around him kept going. His parents told him to stay strong and be brave. Over and over. The now 18-year-old never imagined a senior year of high school with cancer.
"The world is still moving," he said. "It doesn’t stop when I stop. I should just do it. Just full send. Take it to 11 and kill this thing."
On Friday, Fung's family hosted dozens of doctors, nurses and staff from Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children for lunch to thank them.
"Thanks for stabbing me in the right place every time," said Fung to a nurse, laughing.
"You’re so welcome," she said.
Now he gets to imagine a year without cancer.
"I’m telling people that 2023 is going to be a wild year," he said, with a worried look from his mother.
"Remember I’m an 18-year-old nerd who plays the bassoon," he said to his mom. "How far can I go?"
But he has already made it this far.
"The most amazing moment of that week was when you walked in, bashed down the door and screamed non-metastatic!" Fung said in a speech to one of his doctors.
There's no stopping his celebration now.
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