GRAVETTE -- Imagine going to the doctor because of some pain in your foot only to be told the stunning news months later the foot has to be amputated.
If that weren't bad enough, imagine the victim as a 15-year-old and an athlete who was playing basketball and baseball just last spring.
This is the life-changing reality for Jarren Sorters, a freshman at Prairie Grove who will have his left foot amputated at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock on Oct. 15. Jarren has sarcoma, a type of cancer that attacks the soft tissue of the human body in the bones and muscles. Doctors are hopeful by amputating Jarren's left foot up to his mid-calf it will prevent the disease from spreading.
Jarren began feeling pain in his foot in late May or early June. Initially, Jarren and his family thought it was just a sports injury but the pain intensified. By mid-August, doctors made the decision to amputate, and he recently had to undergo a second round of chemotherapy.
"We thought he had a stress fracture in his foot, but it kept getting worse and worse," said Jarren's father, Joey Sorters. "They did an MRI on him in Fayetteville in July, and the doctor said 'I've never seen anything like this before.' Eventually, we met with the people at Children's Hospital in Little Rock and had a biopsy done on Jarren. That's when we began to realize something really unusual was going on, like one in a million."
So, how does anyone, especially loving parents, tell a son who is passionate about sports that his playing days are likely over?
"My wife and I worried, like any parents would, about how we were going to tell him," said Joey, who is the assistant high school principal at Prairie Grove. "I remember saying, 'We're going to get through this; it's going to be OK.' He said, 'Dad, I just want to be able to walk to the kitchen without hurting.'"
There are moments of grief for Joey, his wife, Donna, and their son, Jackson, a seventh-grader at Prairie Grove, over Jarren's condition. But the Sorters family is not alone in their fight against cancer.
Far from it.
Gold for childhood cancer awareness was the dominant color Friday, where football fans from Prairie Grove and Gravette raised more than $10,000 to help support Jarren. There was a silent auction at halftime, and people throughout the stadium wore T-shirts with "Hooray 4 Jarren/No One Stands Alone" printed across the front. Coaches and cheerleaders wore the shirts during the game and some Gravette fans on the visitors' side wore shirts that read "Lions 4 Jarren."
Other area schools, including Prairie Grove's rivals on the football field, got involved in the fundraiser. That includes Huntsville, where Prairie Grove and Huntsville students wore colors last week in support of Jarren and a 15-year-old Huntsville girl who was recently killed in an automobile accident on the way to school.
In addition, a baseball tournament, "Play for Jarren," is scheduled for Walker Park in Fayetteville on Friday through Sunday.
"The response has been overwhelming," said Charity Ruley, a teacher at Prairie Grove who organized the fundraiser for Jarren. "We sold over 1,000 T-shirts, and we had over 50 items donated for the silent auction. It was amazing last week at Huntsville and great to see the way Gravette got involved and raised money for Jarren."
Following his surgery, Jarren will be fitted with a prosthetic to help him lead a normal and full life. Playing sports again may be difficult for Jarren, but it's not entirely out of the question.
Jarren needs to know about Jim Abbott, who pitched in the major leagues for 10 years despite being born without a right hand. Abbott, who wrote an autobiography, "Imperfect: An improbable life," threw a no-hitter for the New York Yankees in 1993 and now lives in California with his wife and two kids.
Jarren will also be inspired by the story of the "Wounded Warriors" softball team that played in Springdale during the summer. This group of war veterans entertained fans and ran and fielded capably despite missing parts of arms and legs from combat action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A medical fund has been set up for Jarren at Arvest Bank locations throughout Northwest Arkansas for those who'd like to contribute.
"Jarren is a great kid and a great athlete," said Ruley, who was Jarren's fourth-grade teacher. "He played a lot last year as an eighth-grader, and we still consider him as our starting point guard this year as a ninth-grader. That hasn't changed."
Sports on 10/07/2015