Lacey Holsworth dies from cancer

This was a gut shot. I knew it was coming and it still blind-sided me when I heard about it this morning from my wife. 

As a MSU Spartan alumnus I’ve been following the story of the friendship between basketball player Adreian Payne and Lacey Holsworth, an eight year old girl who just died this morning from neuroblastoma. Here’s a link to the story in the Lansing State Journal: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20140409/NEWS01/304090010/Report-Lacey-Holsworth-8-friend-Michigan-State-basketball-program-dies

"Princess Lacey has achieved the ultimate victory," reads a post from her official Twitter account. "She now dances among angels."

According to the story written by Joe Rexrode of Gannett Michigan, “Holsworth met Payne after being diagnosed with neuroblastoma and during a hospital stay two years ago, at which point the two became close and fixtures in each other's lives. She participated in the Spartans' Senior Day activities last month and was in Dallas at the Final Four with Payne just last week. She watched him finish third in the slam dunk contest.”

I just get depressed reading these kid cancer stories. Here’s a great young kid who’s only 8 and she has her life snatched away from her by a terrible, unforgiving, wicked disease.

Rexrode’s story includes this from Dick Vitale, “I can’t believe it,” Vitale said of Lacey’s death in a phone interview before sobbing for several seconds. “This rips my heart out, man.”

It rips mine out, too.

I only have one response to shit like this. I logged onto the CERN Foundation and bought a butterfly as part of a fund raiser to help find a cure for Ependymoma – the most common form of childhood brain tumors. https://cern-foundation.org/

John

PS - Be sure to read Rexrode's entire story which also includes some poignant videos.

PPS - I know that MSU and Payne lost to UConn in the NCAA tourney and he lost his little friend, Lacey, but he's a winner in my book.