Urban Hero Awards 2010: Courage Award
A young man from Openshaw who fought aggressive cancer this year was awarded the Courage Award at the 2010 Urban Hero Awards, presented by Manchester youth charity, The Message Trust.
Cody O’Grady, 16, was nominated by his youth leader who watched how he and his family bravely coped through diagnosis, treatment and its side effects.
Sam Ward from Eden Openshaw, part of The Message Trust – a youth charity working with the hardest-to-reach young people in Manchester’s prisons, schools and communities – explains:
‘Ten months ago, Cody came along to our football training session on a Wednesday night. He seemed to have a really sore eye but he said he’d been prescribed some antibiotics and so we thought nothing more of it.
‘But a couple of weeks later Cody turned up at a club and his face was a whole lot worse. What he first thought was a sinus infection actually turned out to be aggressive cancer. He was referred to Christies Hospital for treatment.
‘We got a call at 2.30am one morning from Cody’s dad, Steve. He said Cody was in a bad way. When we arrived, Cody was struggling to move and could hardly breathe. We rushed him to Christies who told us this a serious tumour that was heading towards the brain, which would be fatal. They started chemotherapy that night.’
Cody’s treatment has put him in incredible pain. Successive courses of chemo-and radiotherapy meant he lost weight at an alarming rate. Cody also had to overcome his claustrophobia as he spent many hours in scanning and radiotherapy machines.
Without a car to take them to and from Christies, Cody’s parents Steve and Debbie relied on support from the Eden team and the local church, Openshaw Community Church, to visit Cody. The Eden team also organised weekly prayer vigils throughout the treatment.
Cody’s father, Steve, is proud of how his son coped over the last year:
‘He never complained. He never once moaned. Six months of chemo, six weeks of radiotherapy – then maintenance therapy. He got me through it, to be honest. He really deserves this award.’
Cody’s award, one of five, was presented at this year’s Urban Hero Awards at Manchester’s Palace Hotel on July 9. The awards recognise young people who stand out as having made major changes in their lives or particularly positive contributions to their communities.
Prior to the Awards, Sam Ward explained why he chose to nominate Cody for the Courage Award:
‘It’s the way Cody has coped with cancer that makes him so courageous. He just got on with it – the way he’s coped with the treatment and the side effects. He has been in severe pain but never even wanted pain relief. He just wants to get on with life.’
At the point of nomination Cody was responding so well to treatment that doctors informed him that he was heading for remission and that only maintenance therapy was required. He was expected to gain strength and return to the standard routines of life.
But as the Awards night approached Cody suffered two significant attacks, both of which left him comatose for days. At first doctors thought this was simply a reaction to his many months of treatment but tests revealed that Cody’s cancer had reappeared in the lining around his brain.
Cody was told that he had only months to live as there were nothing further the doctors could do. With only a handful of people knowing the prognosis, Cody stood strong in front of the many hundreds of guests at the Urban Hero Awards Ceremony.
His courage was clear for all to see. Cody fought on, living each day at a time. He came to know Jesus and valued times of prayer.
A rapid decline saw Cody readmitted to hospital in late August but he requested to be allowed home. Doctors granted his last wish.
Cody passed away peacefully in his own bed on September 8th, 2010.