Coast Union volleyball coach Kenyon battles cancer again

Pam Kenyon, Coast Union’s venerable volleyball coach and science teacher, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in December 2013 but declared cancer-free several months later, is once again struggling with the disease.

Researchers say that upward of 30 percent of patients who have had surgery and/or chemotherapy to fight colon cancer will face the same battle again because this kind of cancer does indeed return.

Kenyon knows all about those odds.

Meanwhile, having finished her 25^th year as a highly successful, respected and beloved volleyball mentor — leading the Lady Broncos to a 10-0 Coast Valley League record in 2015 and advancing to the second round of the CIF playoffs — Kenyon has put the gloves on and is ready to battle cancer once again.

She was in an upbeat mood during a phone interview following her visit to the Stanford Medical Center on Saturday, Jan. 6; during that medical examination, doctors told her that “some pretty extensive surgery” is in the offing.

In early December 2015, she had a PET scan and it was determined that “there was some cancerous activity” in her colon. “Pretty immediately” she was put on “some different type of chemotherapy,” and she’s been getting infused with chemotherapy since then.

In January 2016, another PET scan revealed that “there was no change whatsoever,” so doctors didn’t know whether the earlier PET scan had revealed “scar tissue” or indeed more cancer. Scar tissue can appear in scans as cancer, Kenyon explained.

So, after a couple more tests, surgery will be scheduled at Stanford — “they need to go in there and see what’s happening” — probably in late springtime. She will be hospitalized for four or five days after surgery, then come home and get a month of bed rest. Or, as Kenyon put it with a laugh, “until you don’t feel like you’ve had surgery anymore.”

A great concern to Kenyon is that she could lose her teaching job. She has taken close to the maximum number of days for “emergency leave,” and she needs to get “a few days of work in before my surgery just to maintain my job.” She is hoping her oncologist in San Luis Obispo will authorize her to teach at least for a few days.

Meanwhile, her support network has kept her going, she said.

“I’m surrounded by people willing to take care of me, and that’s a blessing. My coworkers have been supportive, and I get messages all the time that say, ‘We’re praying for you … you’re in our thoughts.’ It’s very uplifting,” she said.

Her former volleyball players have her back as well. According to last fall’s Coast Valley League MVP Xue DiMaggio, “Pam is a genuinely sweet person; we all feel that. She establishes a really good relationship with you. She’s a coach, but also she’s a friend.”

Sophie Flemion, a three-time MVP for Kenyon who graduated in 2010, remembers well how Kenyon helped her, both athletically and academically.

“She pushed all of us to step out of our comfort zone. I always talk about Pam; I always think about her.”

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 9:29 AM with the headline "Coast Union volleyball coach Kenyon battles cancer again."