Teen conquers cancer, sets sights on soccer field

In February, fans contributed $4,015 at a pre-basketball game taco dinner to help a family. Since then, Abi Brouwer, the 16-year-old niece of Fostoria High School freshman boys basketball coach Mark Lair, has conquered brain cancer and is aiming to be back on the soccer field with her team at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo. "She is doing amazing," said Andrea Brouwer, who is Abi's mother and Lair's brother. "... She is, every day, getting a little bit stronger and kicking that ball around. She is outside every day doing that and running and trying to get her strength back. She is ready to play some soccer." Abi, who lives with her family in Perrysburg, had surgery in February at the University of Michigan's Mott Children's Hospital to remove a brain tumor, which was subsequently diagnosed to be malignant. Prior to that, Fostoria head boys basketball coach Thom Loomis spearheaded the effort to put together a benefit dinner to assist the Brouwer and Lair families with the various expenses incurred in such a situation. Also, Abi was recognized prior to a home game, where the Fostoria players wore T-shirts with "Be Courageous" printed on them, as well as the social media hashtag #abiswarriors. Those became the team's shooting shirts for the remainder of the season. "That was the kids' idea," FHS head boys basketball coach Thom Loomis said. "All of the kids really love coach Lair and so, by extension, his family. So, anything we could do to help in any way and just be that support that everybody needs sometimes, we were happy to do. I'm proud of a good group of young men that took that on." The best news for Abi came last month, when she was declared cancer-free. "She's so excited to be able to start (soccer) again," her mother said. "She recovered amazingly from her surgery. She responded really well to radiation and chemotherapy. Her last scan showed no signs of cancer right now, so we are taking that as a win. We are thanking God for healing her and praying that it continues to stay that way." She added: "We want to thank, especially Fostoria, but everybody who has been praying for her. It's such a blessing. We just ask that they continue to pray and continue to think about her. As the weeks go by, we just continue to pray she has a clear scan. She'll get a scan every three months for probably the next couple of years and she'll continue with chemotherapy for at least six months, possibly a year. We just pray that everything continues to get the all-clear and she gets stronger and stronger." Loomis praised Abi for how she's handled the situation. "The advances, obviously, in medical technology and cancer research have made things come a long way," he said. "But you've got to have the fighting spirit that, obviously, Abi has, to go through it. No matter what, emotionally, that's got to be really hard, to stay positive. So we're just happy that she was a warrior and battled her way right through."