Jim Kelly’s spirited battle with cancer isn’t over, but the Hall of Fame quarterback says he has no fear if the disease ends up getting the best of him.
The former Bills star, whose fight continues to inspire his adopted hometown of Buffalo, insisted this week that he’s ready for whatever fate has in store for him next.
“I’m not scared,” the former Bills star told reporters at his annual football camp at St. John Fisher College in Rochester. “I’ve never been scared of dying. I’m 54 years old. I’ve been through so many things in my life. … I’ve set goals. I’ve achieved goals. I’ve had a blast.
“If it’s my turn — if the good Lord decides 55 is my age, so what? I’ll be going to see my son a little earlier than I thought I was going to.”
Kelly was referring to his son, Hunter, who died of Krabbe disease at age 8 in 2005.
The tragedy of Hunter Kelly was compounded for Kelly when the he was diagnosed with sinus cancer that reappeared — stronger than before — in March of this year.
Kelly immediately underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments that resulted in him losing 51 pounds and his hair, but he felt good enough to be released from the hospital and is able to move around on his own.
The most important threshold for Kelly next is an MRI exam next month that will show whether the intensive treatments he underwent the past few months are paying off.
“Nowadays a lot of people beat [cancer],” Kelly told ESPN on Wednesday. I hope I’m going to be one of those. I will find out more come next month.”
Kelly’s fight with cancer has been public, due to the publicity efforts of his wife and daughters, Erin and Camryn, who charted many of the steps in his treatment through social media and came up with the “Kelly Tough” theme that has taken off in Buffalo and Western New York.
Several dozen Bills fans even lined up outside the hospital to high-five and cheer Kelly when he left the hospital recently.
Kelly admitted this week that he wasn’t initially on board with his family’s plans to get the word out as soon as the cancer returned.
“I know you guys talk about ‘Kelly Tough’ and my wife putting things on Twitter [and] Facebook, … at the beginning I was not for that,” Kelly told ESPN. “I’m a very private person.
“But she said, ‘Jim, if there’s a way that we can get more people praying for what you’re going through,’ she said, ‘the better off we’re all gonna be.’” And she said, ‘What you can do to help other people, not just adults but kids, too, will be just unbelievable.’’’
Kelly said he was finally at peace with his family’s actions when Erin did an emotional Father’s Day interview with ESPN’s Chris Berman.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever cried that hard in my life,” Kelly said of the interview. “It makes me feel so good every morning to see the bright smile on my daughter’s face every time she comes out to help Daddy.”
While Kelly says he is ready for whatever comes next, including death, his optimism has returned.
“The key to me is I know I have a lot more to do, a lot more lives to change and a lot of people out there who are going to change my life,” Kelly said.
“So [dying] is still a long ways away, I hope and pray.”