The destination is Rustenburg, South Africa. The attraction is the World Cup. But for Katy Hudson and her father, this five-day trip of a lifetime is actually the culmination of their 16-year journey through the world of soccer.
Hudson is a former All-Metro goalkeeper at River Hill High School and a 22-year-old cancer survivor. The unique skills that allowed her to start three seasons at two Division I colleges also enabled her to play through the chemotherapy and radiation treatments she received as a high school junior in 2004 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
This week in South Africa will celebrate a career well served. When Hudson was selected by the newly-formed Craig Willinger Fund last month to attend the United States' World Cup opener against England on Saturday in Rustenburg, she was able to put perspective to her bittersweet experience.
"I was so scared of losing soccer when I got sick," Hudson said. "My goal was always [to play] Division I and I still got to play. Now that I'm ending my career by going to the World Cup – because I'm a cancer survivor – I feel like I went so far beyond my goal that it gives me peace about the whole thing."
Hudson is the first winner of the award that links soccer and cancer. The Craig Willinger Fund, which is awaiting approval from the IRS as a 501C3 non-profit charity, selected her from among just three applicants. The fund's intent is to "improve the lives of children and young adults stricken with cancer" by providing a world-class soccer experience, either domestically or abroad.
Craig Willinger, who launched the charity last November, is a huge soccer fan (especially of Bayern Munich) and a cancer survivor at 40. He was diagnosed with stage 4 chronic lymphocytic leukemia in March 2007 and given 6 1/2 years to live. Willinger, from Highlandtown, made a life-changing trip to Germany in 2009 to see his favorite team, largely through the efforts of his girlfriend, Joanna Agueda, and Darren Rudham, a native of Northern Ireland who had experience with a charity in England that benefited leukemia patients.
"Craig came back a completely different person," said Rudham, who handles media coordination and marketing for Crystal Palace Baltimore. "He had a new lease on life. When he came back, he asked if we could do this on a bigger basis. I said I'd love to."
With a $5,000 donation from Anchor Staffing in Glen Burnie, services from Della Rose's Tavern in Canton, and pro bono work from a lawyer, the group has raised about $15,000. Even celebrities have gotten involved. Willinger said Ethan Zohn, an early winner of the CBS show "Survivor" and a cancer survivor, is contributing $1 from each sale of his new book, Soccer World: South Africa.
Willinger plans to seek corporate donors and send multiple cancer survivors to soccer events next year. Hudson, a perfect recipient, served as a role model in overcoming her illness and in helping others with the disease.
As a 16-year-old junior at River Hill, she discovered a large lump in her neck in mid-January, 2004. In early February, she received the startling diagnosis. That led to eight rounds of chemo, 10 of radiation, a parched, burning throat and a deterioration of her fitness and soccer skills. Through it all, she said, soccer was her first priority and biggest avenue of escape.
Hudson said she could focus on soccer because her pediatric oncologist, Dr. Joseph M. Wiley of Sinai Hospital, had promised not only to cure her, but to allow her to continue to play on her club team. He used steroids to shrink her lymph nodes that February, and she was able to play in a big club soccer tournament in Arizona before beginning treatment.
"Treatment for Hodgkin's is less intense, but still crummy," Wiley said. "She was determined and stubborn. She dragged herself through it, although she was never at risk. Through it all, Katy stayed Katy. She had difficult times, but she didn't change her personality. She had a combination of intelligence, sophistication and [was] a little ditzy … and I loved every bit of it. The way she did it showed incredible toughness."
Wiley did more than that. Two years later, Hudson was in remission and playing at the University of Richmond. Over Thanksgiving, 2006, Wiley arranged for her to meet another of his cancer patients, Amanda Post, then of Clarksville and a passionate soccer player herself. Post, 12, had acute myloid leukemia and had inpatient treatment at Sinai.
Hudson would trade text messages and phone calls with Post when she went back to Richmond. She bought a Spiders' sweatshirt for Post and got a soccer ball signed by the entire Richmond team.
Post finished treatment in June, 2007, and in 2008 entered River Hill. There she met Carylynne Hudson, Katy's younger sister, and they became fast friends. With Katy communicating long distance, a vibrant bond was formed.
"The three girls just connected," said Cheryl Post, Amanda's mother. "Susan, their mom, and I are very close. The last thing any of them focused on was living in this pediatric cancer bubble. That was not the foundation of their friendship. They were three girls who wanted to have a good time."
Amanda Post was six weeks into her freshman year when she relapsed and soon returned to the hospital. Carylynne visited every weekend; Katy decided to run a marathon in Amanda's honor. Post, however, developed complications after a bone marrow transplant and died a year ago in May. Katy Hudson ran in the marathon two weeks later and raised $12,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
"They are a terrific family," Cheryl Post said, "and Katy's an amazing young woman. You couldn't have picked a better person [for the World Cup award]."
Their relationship with Amanda Post had a profound effect on the Hudson sisters. Carylynne, who will play soccer at Kentucky next year – she's also a goalkeeper – wants to become a pediatric oncology nurse. Katy is in graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University, studying to become a social worker in pediatric oncology to share her personal experience.
"Her life mission has changed," Susan Hudson said of her oldest daughter. "She planned on being a psychologist like her father [Don] for as long as I can remember. But going through her cancer and then watching Amanda and watching what goes on at the hospital, it's changed her whole view of what she wanted to do. She truly feels because of her experience she can make a difference in the lives of kids going through this."
Said her father: "She's found her calling. She has a huge empathy index."
Don Hudson, a former goalkeeper himself and Katy's tutor from age 7, will make the trip to South Africa, too, a journey that brings them full circle.
"I've just had so many great moments in that front row seat watching her play," Hudson said. "Soccer in our family really started with her. This is an opportunity to witness what our journey together in soccer has been … This sport was her therapy while she was sick because it always stayed the same, and I think that carried her through."
To learn more about the Craig Willinger Fund, go to cwfund.org