Kicking Cancer with LUSC (PHOTOS)

Soccer is a lot of things to a lot of people.

In the case of Lexington’s Watson family, it means both sport and support. Theirs is a story about soccer, sisters and kicking cancer.

At the start of last summer, Jesi Watson was riding high. Coming off a successful spring, she was assigned to an LPDA squad, picked up her equipment and headed off to a pool party. 

Fourteen months later, the equipment’s never been used. 

At that pool party, Jesi stubbed her toe, which became infected. Which led to some blood tests. Which led to a shocking diagnosis. On July 11, 2010, Jesi Watson learned she had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

“I was kind of like, freaked out because I didn’t know what to do when the doctor called and said I had to go to Children’s Hospital because there was something wrong with my blood,” said Jesi, now 13 and in remission. “Soccer is something that’s really close to my heart. One of the first things I said when I got sick was, ‘What about soccer?’”

Teammates on and off the field

After her diagnosis, Jesi spent two months in the hospital, followed by 12 months in a wheel chair while undergoing rehabilitation and chemotherapy.   

While battling leukemia kept Jesi sidelined, her twin sister Kari turned to her soccer friends for support as she watched her sister fight to overcome leukemia and sever complications from her treatments.

“They’re a really nice group of people,” said Kari. “It creates a really good support system, because everybody’s got everybody’s back.”

While Jesi’s hospital stays and treatments meant parents Alan and Liz Watson were very busy and spending a lot of time at the hospital, the girls’ soccer friends and families helped out providing meals and other means of comfort for the family.

“They made us dessert and dinner,” Kari said. “We have a very good circle of friends here.”

But support for the Jesi, Kari and the Watsons didn't stop at the soccer field or the dinner table.

Last fall, the then U-14 Lexington United Soccer Club girls soccer team led a group participation in the Light the Night Walk in support of Jesi’s battle with leukemia.

In total, about 100 members joined Team Jesi and raised more than $8,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

“It was really nice to see all of those people there,” said Jesi. “I knew a lot were there for me, but then I looked around at all of the people there for other people. It was nice to see them putting in effort to make life easier for people with blood cancer.”

And they’re doing it again this year.

On Oct. 2, Team Jesi—featuring a lineup that looks a lot like a Lexington youth soccer squad might—will walk three miles at Wakefield’s Lake Quannapowit.

They’ll be the ones in the yellow soccer shirts.

The Details

-- For more information about the Light the Night Walk, check out www.lightthenight.org.

-- To support Team Jesi, visit http://pages.lightthenight.org/ma/Wakefld11/TeamJesi

-- Any questions? Email teamjesi@gmail.com