How Pickleball Saved a Life

IN THE SUMMER OF 2017, THE FIRST SIGN OF WHAT WOULD CHANGE JAMIE ELLIOT’S LIFE FOREVER EMERGED.

A lifelong athlete who had made the Junior Olympics in track and field as well as swimming, Jamie was playing a lot of golf and pickleball at the time and thought the ache in her back was simply a byproduct of her active lifestyle. Still, she went for an x-ray. “They found something on a rib,” she recalled. She then had a CT scan, which provides detailed internal images of the body.

“They found a mass,” she said. “I sat in my room, in my pajamas, sobbing, never imagining that I’d have cancer.”

 Jamie was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that often initially manifests in the bones. Chemo and radiation is not effective against it; treatment usually involves surgery.  In March 2018, surgeons removed four of Jamie’s ribs and shaved part of her vertebrae.  Remarkably, four months later, she was competing in the Senior Olympics in pickleball – not just competing, but excelling, as she and her partner took home the silver medal.

 “I felt fine,” she said. But as part of her regimen to detect any return of chondrosarcoma, she had a CT scan in March 2019.  It revealed a tumor on her spine.  The plan was to surgically remove it. “But they couldn’t get it off,” she said. “I was left with movement in my upper body but nothing in the lower body. That was the start of my journey.”

 Pickle Madness spoke with Chicken N Pickle and Paddletek sponsored athlete Jamie Elliott recently about this journey, an uplifting story of faith, determination, and inspiration.