Join us for our 4th Annual Golf Fundraiser on May 4th!

Can you believe we're heading into our 4th year of hosting our golf fundraiser?? We're very excited for this year's tournament because our recipient has a truly inspiring story and we want to do everything in our power to help Tyler out. He's a young, brave soul who has shown us that life can still be lived to the fullest while going through some tough and excruciating times. Not only does he have a great sense of humor, but he has a heart of gold and lives his life as intended. Take a look at Tyler's journey from when he discovered he had cancer, to where life has taken him now. 

Hello my name is Tyler Huttenlocher! I am 20 years old and am studying Software Development with Grand Canyon University online. The story really begins in late 2022- early 2023 when I was on campus playing sand volleyball. I thought I landed wrong on my right leg while playing because the next day my knee was hurting. It felt like a soreness/pain that wouldn’t go away, even after I put braces on it for a week or two. I told my mom I needed to go to the doctor and we scheduled the soonest appointment available for February 2, 2023. At that appointment, they took x-rays of my knee and soon discovered a tumor in my right knee/femur that was the size of a golf ball. Right then and there the doctor basically told me it was a cancer called Osteosarcoma.

After the appointment, the doctor called a colleague of his that worked for Mayo Clinic to help with the diagnosis. From that point on, I had a bunch of appointments and was officially diagnosed with Osteosarcoma. Osteosarcoma is a very aggressive bone cancer that occurs in teens and with the elderly. With that being said, by the end of the month I was already starting chemotherapy treatments due to the cancer being very aggressive. The plan was to have 3 cycles of chemotherapy to do knee reconstruction, and 3 more cycles after that. However, toward the end of my 3rd cycle I was told that the tumor was getting too close to blood cells for them to be confident enough to get all of the tumor out of my knee without it coming right back. So, they gave me the choice of taking the risk and doing the knee reconstruction, or to do an above-the-knee amputation.

I pretty quickly chose to do the above-the-knee amputation because I wanted to decrease the odds of the cancer coming back as much as I could. I had the surgery on July 5th, 2023 and the pathology of the tumor showed that the chemo treatment had killed more than 95% of the cancer. After the surgery, the plan was to do 3 more cycles of chemo, but I only ended up doing one more due to getting sick, the tinnitus in my ears getting worse, and my increased heart rate. I felt good enough to stop the chemo with the pathology report and I did not want to add any other medical conditions caused by the chemotherapy. I finished my last round of chemotherapy on October 6th, 2023 and since then I have been going to physical therapy to learn to walk with my prosthetic.

We look forward to having a blast on May 4th! We're still looking for hole sponsors, so if you are interested in helping our cause, click here to get more info. If you want to golf with some of your best golf buds, follow this link to get signed up for the tournament. We encourage any Star Wars fans to go all out for this tournament, so come dressed to impress! Don't forget to keep up with our social media to see Tyler talk about his journey. Our goal is to sell out the foursomes, raise as much money as we can for Tyler, and simply have a good time for a good cause! We'll see you all bright and early on May 4th!