Extra Effort: Addison Rowan's comeback from cancer

It's just a few weeks into the season and the Vance Charter girls volleyball team is still finding their groove.

"It's a fresh group almost," head coach Anna Stallings said. "I feel really confident about us being successful again."

Vance Charter lost five seniors from a team that won the conference championship. The banner hangs proudly in the gym. It's a testament to a special season and the special story of one of this year's senior captains, Addison Rowan.

"I just kind of want to go out with a bang," Rowan said. "I feel like this is my comeback."

You've probably heard of athletes giving "blood, sweat, and tears" for their sport. Rowan literally gave her own flesh and bone last season.

"It's definitely something I would have never imagined having to go through as a sixteen year old."

Rowan's story begins with the discovery of a benign tumor in her chest during her sophomore year. By September of 2021 the tumor had grown.  A biopsy was performed right at the start of her junior volleyball season.

"They were like it's a one percent chance that anything could be wrong," Rowan remembered. "It ended up coming back cancerous."

Rowan had a rare form of cancer called alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS). According to her doctors, it was just the third documented case of ASPS in the chest.

"It was definitely hard, you don't want to hear that for your child," Addison's mother Keesha Rowan said. "I wanted to take it away. Why couldn't it be me? Why does it have to be her, why?"

"I thought I was not going to make it," Addison said. "I was scared I was going to end up having to do [chemotherapy]. I didn't think I would ever be able to play again.

Throughout her appointments at Duke Hospital, Addison continued to play volleyball and attend school.

"We tried to let her experience the season as best that she could while she was going through all this and be who we were already," Stallings said.

"I can picture her laying in those machines getting a brain MRI, chest CT, watching tests, needles and appointments," Keesha remembered. "Within hours of those appointments and tests she was out here on this court."

Addison's doctors determined the best course of action was to surgically remove the tumor. The surgery was scheduled for October 19, 2021, the day after Vance Charter's conference championship game. Not only did Addison play and win the game, Vance Charter swept in three sets.

"I will literally never forget that game," Addison said. "I feel like everyone played their hardest and I feel like everyone played hard for me because they knew how important that game was for me."

"That was really big for us as a team," Stallings said. "We wanted her to have the best experience because we didn't know what was going to happen after surgery."

The next day Addison underwent a six hour surgery to remove the cancerous tumor. The surgery required taking out a rib and moving Addison's left latissimus dorsi or "lat" muscle to cover the gap.

"No one could have prepared us for what we were going to see after her surgery," Keesha said. "I broke down, I wasn't expecting to see her so debilitated."

When Addison woke up she couldn't walk or move her arm. Next she went through occupational and physical therapy all while attending school virtually.

"I couldn't even pick up my left arm," Addison remembered. "I had to re-learn how to operate it and exercises that I would have never thought I'd have to do."

After about three months she was cleared to resume athletic activity. When she returned to the volleyball court she was far from the player she was during that conference championship.

"It kind of defeated me for a little bit, but then I ended up using it as motivation," Addison said.

When you see Addison on the volleyball court now, you'd never know she had part of body rearranged. A large scar where her lat muscle used to be is a reminder.

"She's my hero," Keesha said. "I look up to her she gives me strength now. Anytime I get nervous about things I think about what she went through."

Addison's amazing journey earned her the WRAL Tom Suiter Extra Effort award, but you could argue effort doesn't even begin to describe it.

"There was a lot of times that I wanted to stop because I didn't think that I would get better," Addison said. "But if you keep going it does get better."