Liam Hendriks

White Sox’ Liam Hendriks Discusses His Inspiring Battle With Stage 4 Cancer

After professional baseball player Liam Hendriks was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in December, today he is proud to say his cancer is in remission.

“As of now I have a clean bill of health,” the White Sox pitcher announced during a press conference on Wednesday. “I’m currently in remission.”

The athlete was diagnosed with cancer in December and began rounds of chemo treatment in January. Despite the circumstances, Hendriks refused to refrain from having a positive attitude. “I never looked at it as a ‘why me thing?'” the athlete explained. “I looked at it as ‘Why not me?’ I tend to have a more rosy perspective on life than (the general population) so that was my process behind it. ‘I’ve got this. This is my next challenge.'”

Continuing, the professional athlete said having a positive outlook on treatment options contributed to having a successful experience battling cancer. “I haven’t changed my mindset. It’s always been positive. The next day is what we are going to do. It’s never been a look to the future; it’s been taking care of today,” Hendriks said. “That was a contributing factor that really helped me attack everything with this.’’

Even with rounds of chemotherapy, the baseball player continued throwing bullpens at the White Sox spring facility in Glendale, Arizona.

Liam Hendriks says ‘positive mental attitude’ is essential to beating cancer.

“As soon as I found out the regular treatment timelines, I thought, ‘OK, how can I beat it?'” he said. “It was those days on the couch, not being able to move much (after chemo), those were the days you needed to dig deep and find that positive mental attitude.”

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But, with the support of friends, family, and fans, including Cubs pitcher, and cancer survivor, Jameson Taillon, he was able to continue practicing his profession. After being sent a moving message from Taillon, Hendriks said he was back on the pitching mound the next day.

“There’s a damn well chance I pitched all of last year with lymphoma in my system,” he recalled. “I’d like to think that was the reason I struggled to recover at the end of the year. I was damn well limping to the finish line.”

Now in remission, Hendriks plans to return to the White Sox field and pitch again after he finished a rehab assignment of four or five appearances with Triple-A Charlotte.

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