Joseph Lee was known for being tenacious and funny. Even when circumstances in his life seemed to conspire against him, he always maintained hope, faith, and his sense of humor.
When he was twelve years old, a bump on his forearm caused Joseph’s parents to seek medical attention. Initially, his doctor thought it was a cyst of some kind. But his parents sought a second opinion which later revealed a diagnosis of rhabdomyosarcoma – a type of cancer that affects muscle tissue.
Initially, his doctors recommended surgery to amputate Joseph’s arm. But surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation worked to eliminate the tumor. Joseph celebrated clean scans for several years. He also celebrated life in special ways.
“Joseph was my only sibling, and we were very close,” said his sister, Rachel. “During his cancer journey, he taught me to be grateful for life’s little things. He had such a kind spirit and loved to encourage others because of the unique perspective cancer gave him.”
Joseph inspired others with his motto, “keep fighting… and living – as normally as you possibly can.” After treatment ended, Joseph demonstrated his tenacity on the football field as a running back. He worked hard to graduate high school and was accepted into the University of Georgia. But cancer had other plans. Joseph’s cancer returned and spread to the lymph nodes of his left arm.
After he beat cancer again, Joseph went on to study criminology at UGA, walk on the football team, and later work in the Cobb County Police Department. In 2018, he was working as a government contractor in Kuwait when his cancer came back again and forced him to return home.
“He declined rapidly when he got home,” Rachel recalled. “One day he was having trouble speaking but called my name clearly as I was leaving his room. When I turned around, he held up praying hands and bowed his head as a gesture of thanks. That made me feel a special peace, and I knew he felt peaceful, too.”
Joseph Lee passed away on May 9, 2018, at the age of 29. His family has been involved with CURE in many ways over the years, but Rachel went a step further in 2020 by joining the Young Professional Leadership Council. The YPLC is a group of dynamic and emerging leaders in the Atlanta community with a passion for and commitment to advancing CURE’s mission. Rachel hopes to combine her experience as a Digital Transformation Privacy Program Manager at Chick-fil-A and her passion for fighting childhood cancer to help provide better options to children with cancer.
“I am impressed with the work CURE has done to achieve better treatments for kids,” she said. “But there is a long way to go, and I hope together we can raise money for research that will make a difference.”
Watson had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is the most common childhood cancer and the most treatable. Since it was a Friday when he was diagnosed, Watson was scheduled for port placement surgery the following Monday morning. That day would also start a chemotherapy regimen that would last more than three years. For young parents, it was a daunting prospect.
For Avery, treatment was a fact of life that, as far as she could help, didn’t stop her from being involved with CURE, making friends in the hospital and at Camp Sunshine, and trying (when she could) to be a normal kid. Of course she wasn’t a normal kid going to school. Instead she went to clinic appointments and wore a bandana on her head for almost three years. Her goal, however daunting her circumstances, was to instill hope and happiness where she could and advocate for future change through research in the field of pediatric oncology.
