Hegreness to compete in 2012 U.S. Paralympics

Faith triumphs
    Editor’s note: Story compiled by Gloria Austin from Hegreness’ notes.
At 17, your life is full of hope and promise. No one expects the excitement’s sheen to dull. But, one college freshman discovered euphoria can be broken and a life-threatening struggle can become celebratory.
UP AND RUNNNING – In the photograph above, Daphne Williams Hegreness enjoys running again, as she lost her leg to epitheliod sarcoma. After surgery, she was fitted with a prosthetic leg. She competed in the Extremity Games July 2009 in  Michigan. She is now training for the 2012 U.S. Paralympics in London as part of the U.S. Women’s Sprinting Team.
    “Early on in my new life as an amputee, I made a decision that having only one real leg was not going to stop me from living my life,” said Daphne Williams Hegreness. “There are so many things I want to learn and do, and I am not going to be stopped … I am just going to adapt to it.”
    Hegreness is the daughter of Bruce and Melodee Williams and granddaughter of John and Amanda Williams of Linneus.
    Hegreness was diagnosed with epitheliod sarcoma, an extremely rare, slow moving, but extremely aggressive cancer that eats away soft tissue.
    This is her story and her triumph of courage and above all, faith.
    “I was in my first semester of college when I noticed something odd was happening with my left ankle,” said Hegreness. “It looked like a bad bruise, but I didn’t remember ever hitting it.”
    By the end of 2004, Hegreness’ entire ankle area had changed color and shape.
    “It felt like small craters forming underneath my skin,” she said.
    In May 2005, Hegreness saw many doctors and underwent countless tests, ruling out everything from diabetes to bone cancer.
    “One morning in June, I woke up and the skin on my ankle was gone,” Hegreness said. “I had an open ulcer which was both painful and gross.”
    After X-rays, Hegreness’ doctor in southern Maine concluded she had been bitten by a brown recluse spider. He de-breaded the area and put her in a cast.
    Hegreness returned to school and by the spring of ’05, the cast came off and her ankle was healed, with just a scar.
    “I honestly thought it was over,” she said. “And, that was that.”
    But, Hegreness was not to be so lucky.
    In July 2006, she was working at a summer camp in Pennsylvania when she accidentally scraped her ankle. She noticed the scar on her ankle had started gaping from the bottom.
    “Through the summer, I watched my ankle open back up before my eyes,” said Hegreness. “It definitely became a trying time for me spiritually, mentally and physically.”
    Thinking all of the pain and discomfort was behind her, Hegreness found it beginning anew, but she didn’t let it slow her down. In August, she went to Israel for a year to live and attend Baptists for Israel Institute.
    “My ankle just kept getting progressively worse and more painful through the year,” Hegreness said. “It was becoming hard to walk or stand on for more than just a few minutes.”
     If she got bumped, even slightly, she couldn’t breath as sharp pain ripped her ankle. Knowing she couldn’t continue on this way, Hegreness went to doctors in Israel, even trying a method of shocking herself with cables hooked to a moped.
    “It was harmless, although slightly painful,” she said. “I was told the electricity would reverse the spider venom. It didn’t work, but it has become a great story to tell.”
    Hegreness came back home in the summer of 2007, with still no answers and her ankle was getting worse. She visited more doctors, even going to a specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
    “In Cleveland, I was tested for more than a dozen different things. The doctor said it was not a spider bite like we initially thought,” said Hegreness.
    The doctor deducted that Hegreness might have picked up a bacteria while she was in Nepal on a missions trip in 2003.
A young Hegreness does push ups.
    “He told me to have a biopsy done of my ankle when I got back to Maine,” she said.
    Following through, Hegreness had her ankle biopsied in Bangor. After nearly a month, Hegreness became increasingly concerned.
    “It was only supposed to take a week or so to get the results,” she added. “There is one day in my life that no matter how old I get, I will never forget.”
    That is Nov. 19, 2007.
    “My doctor called and he said I have your results. In my head, I was thinking, ‘OK Here it is. I have this bacteria and I’m going to get some medicine and my ankle will go back to normal and I can do all the things I love to do again’,” said Hegreness.
    Unfortunately, the doctor  broke the news to her that she had epitheliod sarcoma.
    “I didn’t even know what that was,” she said. “So, I asked. And, I was stunned.”
    Hegreness had cancer.
    “I remember telling myself to breathe,” she said. “I listened to everything he was saying. It was weird in a way because although I didn’t know before that phone call that I had cancer, my body did.”
     Hegreness had undergone so many tests for a variety of cancer types, with each one coming back negative.
    Hanging up the phone, Hegreness began to pray. She drew upon her faith, knowing God was in control and that His way is perfect.
    “God gave me an amazing feeling of peace,” she recalled.
    Her next step was to call her family. Hegreness spoke with her father and relayed to him the results. At first, he didn’t believe the diagnosis. And, then she told him again.
    “He broke down,” she said. “Hearing your Dad cry is the hardest thing … but he said something I will never forget. ‘Honey, the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He is in control and He will take care of you.’”
     After her immediate family, Hegreness told her boyfriend the news.
    “It’s hard to tell those you love news of this magnitude,” she said. “My family gathered together. We cried. We prayed. We cried some more. But, throughout the day and those to follow, we knew the situation was in great hands … God’s.”
    Hegreness went to have more scans to locate the cancer and to find out if it had spread. It had. It was contained in the foot and leg.
    “This was an answer to prayer, considering how long I had cancer without knowing,” she said. “I went for a second opinion in Boston. The doctor decided the best way to get rid of all the cancer was amputation.”
    Hegreness underwent surgery in Boston on Jan. 3, 2008.
    That’s when a new story began to be written for Hegreness.
NO STOPPIN’ HER NOW – Daphne Hegreness doesn’t let her “handicap” stop her from trying new sports. Not only does she run, she waterskis, rock climbs and now skis.
    Hegreness spent most of the next year at County Physical Therapy in Houlton. As her strength increased, she said many things happened throughout that time period, including becoming engaged on Valentine’s Day while sitting in a wheelchair to getting a prosthetic leg in March.
    “I was like a baby learning to walk for the first time,” she explained. “The first time I stood up again on two legs I cried. I was so happy and it was the greatest feeling. It was something I took for granted when I had two legs.”
    In April, Hegreness underwent surgery again for an infection, but by the end of the month, she was back learning to walk.
    “I wanted to run, but my brain and my legs weren’t remembering how it all worked. When I tried on the treadmill, my legs went every which way and so did my arms,” she remembered with a smile. “It was definitely a sight to behold.”
    Her handicap didn’t prevent her from marrying her husband Jeff on Dec. 14, 2008.
    “He’s been amazing through everything,” she said.
    Because he is in graduate school at Ohio State University for his doctorate in physical therapy, Hegreness lightheartedly said, “We’re told we are a perfect match.”
    In February ‘09, her husband completed his clinical at a physical therapy office that specializes with amputees.
    “He was given this at ‘random,’ but we know it was God,” Hegreness said. “Jeff learned a lot, and in return I learned a lot. It was a result of that clinical that I finally learned to run! Jeff taught me in our small apartment living room, and that night I took a lap around the apartment complex. It was so exhilarating to be able to move so fast!  And that night … my love for running and running fast began.”
    The next step … the Extremity Games.
    “In July 2009, I went to Michigan for the games,” Hegreness said. “This is a competition much like the X Games, but it is for people who are paralyzed or who are amputees. It was there that my love for wakeboarding began. And Lord willing, I will be returning this summer to compete.”
    While at the Extremity Games, Hegreness met a man who is involved with Wounded Warrior and the Paralympics.
    “Jeff and I talked to him about what it takes to run in the Paralympics,” explained Hegreness. “I felt that God wanted me to pursue this opportunity.”
    Before having her leg removed, Hegreness never ran as a hobby or even as a sport.
    “Four years before I was diagnosed, I was in so much pain that running wasn’t even an option,” she said. “Now, God was leading me toward one of the world’s largest competitions …  second to the Olympics. Talk about going big or go home.”
    Hegreness began training last summer, with her husband as coach and cheerleader. In August, the couple went on a road trip to the western United States, visiting Colorado Springs.
    “We went to the Olympic training center,” Hegreness said. “What happened that day was totally orchestrated by God.”
    The couple was waiting to go on a tour when a man in a suit walked past them. He stopped and looked at Hegreness’ leg.
    “It didn’t really faze me, as I’ve become accustomed to this happening,” she said.
LOVIN’ IT – Daphne Hegreness loves water sking, along with other sports. She doesn’t consider herself an amputee. She said she is  adaptable. If you add a ‘go’ to the word disabled … you get “Godisabled.”
    But instead of continuing on his way, he came over and shook her hand and introduced himself. He told Hegreness he was in charge of the Paralympics.
    “The man!,” she said. “We talked for awhile and I told him about my running and he asked us to stop by his office after our tour.”
    When they did, they were introduced to the head coach of track and field for the Paralympics. Hegreness told her about her training and what she wanted to accomplish. From her story, the coach wanted her to work hard and participate in the 2012 U.S. Paralympics in London as part of the U.S. Women’s Sprinting Team.
    Hegreness continued her contact with her coach, learning which races she would need to participate in and the times she would need to clock to qualify, as well as be appointed an Olympic coach.
    “I have a long road ahead of me,” she said. “I have times to achieve. I will need to get a running leg, which is expensive because it’s designed for running. I also have lots of hard work to do, but I’m very excited.”
    Hegreness first official race is June at Ohio State University. She is hoping, also in June, to compete in the Endeavor Games in Oklahoma, another competition for people with “disabilities.”
    “I always put the word disabilities in quotes,” said Hegreness, “because I don’t see myself as disabled. I see myself as adaptable. If you add a ‘go’ to the word disabled … you get “Godisabled” and that’s what it’s all about. I would never be where I am today with out Him and I never could have gotten through it all with out the strength He gives, and the amazing people He put in my life along the way.
    “People look at me strangely when I say this, but I actually love being an amputee,” she added. “God has given me an amazing life as a result of it. He took something bad, and made it into something great, and for that I am so thankful.”
    Hegreness now rock climbs and with the help of her husband, she has learned to ski.
    (Anyone wishing to donate to Hegreness’ attempt at purchasing a prosthetic running leg may do so by visiting productsforacure.com.)