Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/115002
Offensive linemen aren���t typically quite so visible, and Shrive is not a media room fixture, having seen limited playing time since arriving at Penn State. But he���s making an enormous impact through his charitable ventures. ���It���s something special to look back on and say we were able to help this,��� Shrive said. ���We have a lot of kidney cancer supporters and a lot of people who suffer from kidney cancer that we help. I think it would be great to change a disease.��� ... Wide receiver Brett Brackett was president of the chapter when Shrive joined Uplifting Athletes as a freshman, and Shrive credits him with initially sparking and maintaining his interest in the organization. But it was another former Penn State wide receiver who made the opportunity possible. In the fall of 2002, during his redshirt junior season, Scott Shirley walked into his apartment, shoulders sunk, with an obvious look of sadness on his face. From the couch, roommate Damone Jones, an offensive tackle, asked what was wrong. Shirley had to tell him. His father, Don, had just been diagnosed with kidney cancer, an especially deadly disease that was resistant to chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy and most other treatments that were available at the time. Because the cancer was so uncommon ��� there were fewer than 45,000 Americans with kidney cancer in 2002 ��� only one treatment regimen existed. And that regimen offered patients only a 10 percent chance of living five years. Don Shirley was not expected to live even that long; doctors were telling him he had six months. ���We got in to see the top cancer doctor in [Johns] Hopkins,��� Scott Shirley said. ���He didn���t even close the door of the waiting room. He just stuck his head in and said, ���The reality is that there���s nothing we can do. Go home and enjoy the time that you have with him.��� ���