Keaton Johnson Leads Lap of Life at 29th Annual Cancer Walk 

Have you heard the parable about a group of blind men that encounter an elephant for the first time? To understand the creature, they examine it by touching it, with each man focusing entirely on a single part of the animal’s body.

The man who feels its stony tusk states the elephant is a sharp spear. The man who  hugs the elephant’s wrinkled knee declares it’s a tree. The man who grabs the elephant’s trunk proclaims  it to be a giant writhing snake, and the man who grasps the tail is convinced the elephant is a rope. 

Cancer is like an elephant. 

No two people experience it the same.  Keaton Johnson’s cancer story starts with blindness, too. 

Keaton was a typical 15-year old boy who loved sports. He played on the Bulldogs football team and was shortstop on the Legion baseball team. He loved his friends and family, going to church,,and eating noodles with butter and a ton of parmesan cheese.  He began to notice bouts of blindness when he would stand up from sitting or get out of bed. His right eye would go black. 

“I thought it was just something in my neck or my back.” Keaton says. “So I asked Mom  if she would make me a chiropractor appointment to get adjusted.”

His mother Sara, a fourth-grade teacher at St. Lawrence, says,”We thought it was a pinched nerve.”

“I went to Dr. Matt Foell here in Milbank. He then sent me on to the eye doctor.” Several months and many other doctors followed. Keaton’s neurologist in Sioux Falls, frustrated by a lack of answers, contacted a colleague at the University of Minnesota and because Keaton ‘s eyes kept getting worse and continued to black out,they sent him to the ER at the U of M.” 

On Ash Wednesday, the family found themselves at the university with Keaton undergoing yet another battery of tests . Sara says, “They ran the tests, and said, ‘Your vision is looking good.’ After what everyone thought was the last scan, the neuroimmunologist came in, and said, ‘We just want to make sure we’ve checked every box. So we can say we looked. We just want to do one more scan so we can see if there are any lesions on his spinal cord.  We’ll do it today, and you guys can leave, and we’ll call you with the results. We are not expecting anything.’”

“So we left and went to a restaurant,” Sara remembers . “As we were walking into the restaurant. I got the call saying, ‘You gotta come back. We found a mass.’”

Sara explains one of the reasons it took so long to get a diagnosis. She points to her neck to show  where the scans would stop and where the tumor started. The difference was just shy of two inches. 

Keaton was diagnosed with stage 3 classic Hodgkin’s lymphoma and regardless of the time it took to reach a diagnosis, the treatment started that day. The news was devastating, and the tears were unavoidable. But when Keaton  talks about his cancer treatment, he doesn’t begin with fear and pain. Instead, when asked to describe his journey, he responds,  “Faith-filled.”

“I’ve always been a faithful person,” he says. “I was going to daily mass with my great grandma Audrey (Mogard) when I was just a little pee-wee. I also went with my grandpa (Duane Tillman) when my mom and my dad were at work. Faith was something I could go to when I needed it most, and it never disappointed me. I never doubted anything.”

“He never questioned it, “ Sara agrees.

Keaton even says,” If my faith has changed, it’s gotten better. This whole (cancer) thing set me back and made me open my eyes more. Obviously, my eyes were open before, but I didn’t really realize everything – all the blessings that were happening to me. “

Although the Bible says, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.” God also restores. “I definitely felt that God was working within me,” Keaton says. “ I mean, there’s no way I could just go from needing glasses since first grade to all of a sudden I don’t need glasses at all anymore.” 

“One day, I asked the eye doctor’s assistant, ‘Can I just take my glasses off and try the  eye chart one time?  Just to see? And I did and I could. So then I asked, ‘Does this mean I don’t have to wear my glasses?  She said, ‘‘I don’t know why you would wear them?’”  Keaton had gone from blindness in one eye to 20/20 vision. Some give credit to the massive doses of steroids he received, and  some see only faith. 

“All those prayers were working for you, Keaton,” Sara says, “and you had a lot of them!” 

It was always faith that carried Keaton through his darker moments – faith and the people around him.  Keaton says he would advise any teen with cancer to  “surround themself with friends that will be there for you.” 

Sara says, “When we learned we could return home after his first round of chemotherapy, Keaton asked me if  “a couple” of friends could stop by. I said as long as they aren’t sick and they wear a mask. When we got home we were putting away some things, when I looked out the window, I saw two pickup loads of boys had just pulled up.”

“I lost it,” Sara said. “It was awesome.” The boys crowded into the house, joking and spending time together as if nothing had changed.” 

The baseball team also placed stickers with Keaton’s initials on their helmets, and the football team presented him with his white away jersey, signed by all the players.

“My friends were always there for me,” Keaton says. They always asked if I needed anything.They were somebody I could talk to, and they helped me with school-related questions.”

Sara agrees, “He was able to count on all of his friends. It didn’t matter which one; they were there.”

So Keaton doesn’t hesitate to answer the question about what quality matters most in a friend. “Loyalty. Trust. Reliability. The support I’ve had from everybody –the thoughts and the prayers – makes me feel incredibly happy.”

Keaton is considered to be in remission now. Sports remain at the top of his list of things he is most looking forward to at school this fall. He’ll be in football and says he’s looking forward to the games.  He is in Legion Baseball this summer. Keaton plays second base.

“Before everything happened, I was at shortstop,” he says a bit wistfully. “But now my mobility isn’t as good as it used to be, so I got moved over to second.” 

He also has the distinction of being chosen as the Honorary Chair of the 29th Annual It Only Takes a Spark Cancer Walk, and he will lead the Lap of Life tonight, Friday, June 12, at Lake Farley. 

He said he was surprised to be chosen. “ It felt good. It didn’t hit right away, but when I stepped back to look at it, there’s a whole bunch of people in this town that they could have chosen, but they chose me. That’s special.”

The event was already near and dear to his heart. His great grandma Audrey was honorary chairperson in 2022, and Keaton has been helping at the walk for about 10 years by filling luminaries and helping his grandpa Tillman on the stage.

Talking with Keaton, it’s evident he is an extraordinary  person – wise beyond his years. He’s also a typical 17-year-old boy. Well, a typical 17-year-old boy who loves to mow the lawn. No need to eject him from the sofa. Reportedly, the anticipation of the leafy green scent of freshly cut grass practically pulls him into the yard. 

“I like to mow,” he says. 

“He loves to mow the yard,” Sara emphasizes. “That was the one thing the doctors said he couldn’t do while he was on chemo. They said, ‘We don’t want you out in all the dust and pollen.’  But as soon as they said it was o.k., he was on that mower.”

“I’m pretty sure I was on the mower that day.” Keaton says with his boyish grin.

Maybe it is the stress-relieving chemicals in freshly-cut grass or maybe it’s just nature that soothes him. When he needed to get away, Julie Landmark would take him on drives in the country. 

“Because he couldn’t be around people,  we’d just go shoot stuff.” Julie says, ”We also had fun when we road-tripped to the Cities.”

“I got to attend a Twins game,” Keaton says. “I got to go on the field and meet a few of the players. When they introduced the players, I got to be out with them.”

“They made it pretty special for him. That was last summer – actually, the day after he rang the bell,” Sara says.

“We went to a Minnesota Gophers basketball game, too.” Keaton says.

‘Keaton was invited to the practice, and he got to be out on the court with the guys,”  Julie says.

 “Each player adopted a cancer kid.” Sara explains.

“Keaton’s player is Maximus Gizzi, and he is so good to Keaton,” Julie says.

“They still stay in contact,’ Sara adds.

Although many kids dream of being a professional athlete, Keaton is leaning towards becoming a firefighter-paramedic like one of his heroes.

“I grew up around my grandpa, and just about every day we went up to the fire hall. I used to climb on the trucks, and we would always get an ice cream bar afterwards. Grandpa is currently a paramedic here in Milbank, so I still go up there quite frequently,’ he says.

“Grandpa still has his bunker gear from when he was on the fire department. So I try it on every once in a while.”  But when the time comes for Keaton  to pick a career, he says, “It will be whatever God wants me to do. I still have a while to think about it.”

How does Keaton characterize his life now that he is in remission? “Still faith-filled,” he says. His mom also supplies the word, “determined”. “You were bound and determined to get back to playing baseball full time,” Sara says. “Nothing can keep Keaton down. He is gonna try it. No one can tell him he can’t do something.” 

Best of all, Keaton doesn’t seem worried about the details. He just believes.  

As Jesus said, “With God all things are possible.” That might be the best explanation for an elephant, too.