Kicking Cancer: Union’s Kleon Keang gives boot to leukemia

On the worst days of leukemia treatment, his taste buds shot and energy sapped because of ongoing chemotherapy, Kleon Keang walked.

Circling the fourth floor at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center became Kleon’s oasis during a nearly two-month hospital stay following his acute myeloid leukemia (AML) diagnosis. One lap, two laps turned into a personal-best 16 laps as days turned into weeks. The latter equals one mile around the hospital’s cancer-care wing.

Walking in a hospital gown with a portable IV pole in tow was Kleon’s fitness outlet when soccer — the sport he dreamt of playing professionally — no longer was an option.

Kleon is a Union High School senior and three-year varsity forward/midfielder on the Titans’ boys soccer team. While missing his last season of high school soccer with teammates he calls his brothers is painful, and still with two more rounds of chemo to go, he doesn’t want you to feel sorry for him, because he considers himself lucky.

Lucky to get cancer? Not exactly. More like fortunate his prognosis is good as his treatment reaches the halfway point.

But lucky, too, because Kleon knows how unlucky cancer is. As the youngest patient on his hospital’s floor, he saw plenty of unlucky while walking.

“I met people in the hospital who have it worse than me,” Kleon said. “People I know who have been in treatment for years.

“This is just another obstacle in my life,” he continued. “Just get over the bump, and things will get better.”

The news was equally devastating for Union High School’s student body and the boys soccer program. Titans head coach Kelcey Burris calls Kleon one of the more versatile and committed players he’s had in 10 seasons at Union, and went a step further saying Kleon is a special player because of how well he adapts to any situation he’s thrown into.

This is the biggest yet.

Said Burris: “That’s given him the base to fight the fight of his life.”

Outlook is good

If there’s such a thing as a good kind of leukemia, Kleon has that, he said. Tests show he doesn’t need a bone-marrow transplant, nor radiation.

The five-year survival rate of AML is 27 percent, but Kleon’s outlook is good, he said. At first, doctors estimated treatment would last 6-8 months. That’s now down to four.

Kleon did have low points, like during the first week of his first chemo session inside Room 453 where he cried nightly, questioned how much longer he’d live or even what life post-cancer would be. Then came staph and bacterial infections.

His first chemo treatment lasted from late January to early March 4, and he was hospitalized 24/7, unable to leave for even fresh air.

“I felt like I was in prison,” he said, “for doing something I didn’t do.”

But there was upside, too, like rekindling his relationship with his father after the diagnosis. The only child of Cambodian immigrants, Kleon’s parents divorced when he was 2, and he was raised by a single mother, a woman he calls “my world.”

He echoes similar words when describing the outpouring of support from the community. To date, a GoFundMe page to offset medical expenses has raised $20,695.

“The amount of support we’ve gotten from everyone is astounding,” he said. “We live in such a great community where everyone is always there for you.”

Prom king

Kleon is through three of five planned chemo treatments. Since being discharged from the hospital full-time March 4, treatments are now every four weeks, three days a week for three hours at Kaiser Sunnyside, located in Clackamas, Ore. His next treatment starts May 12.

There’s more good days now than bad, even when taking up to 20 pills daily. Those better days include attending Union practices and games when he can, which draws inspiration from his teammates like fellow senior Scott Mehan.

“You have to have a pretty big heart to do that,” he said.

Then, there was going to prom April 22 — three days post-chemo. There, he was named prom king, and like the gentleman he is, instead of basking in prom-king glory, he handed the crown to the prom queen’s date, his friend Jean Carlos Ortiz-Roman.

When asked why, Kleon responded, “So they could be together.”

No surprise there, says teammate and friend Mark Fabyanchuk. And on the pitch, Fabyanchuk said Kleon is a player who does anything for his teammates, which is why his absence this season is noticeable in more ways than one.

“It’s a key you can’t really replace,” said Fabyanchuk, a senior. “You can put someone there, but it’s not the original.”

At 3-8-4 overall, Union is out of playoff contention. Its final game is Wednesday, hosting Heritage at 7 p.m. at McKenzie Stadium. The season didn’t go as planned, but will end on a high note for Kleon: he’ll be in uniform Wednesday, and start his final high school game in what he expects to be an emotional night.

He’s also on track to graduate in June, and he’s still deciding where to attend college. He recently created a bucket list, which includes skydiving and international travel. He knows how easily he could have given up and let cancer take charge, but that’s now who Kleon Keang is.

Instead, he started to fight by starting to walk.

“I want to try a whole bunch of things,” he said, “so I won’t regret life. I’d rather live a life where I’ve experienced everything and it’s short, than live a long life and not do anything.”