Portage resident David Fadely has been coaching Pop Warner football in Portage for 14 years, and he has even led the Portage team to its first national tournament appearance. In 2019 Fadely was starting to feel sick which he attributed to the stress of coaching football. He felt a pain in his stomach that was not getting better even after going to the tournament.
“It was not getting any better, and in fact, it was getting worse,” said Fadely. “I would drive down the road and hit a bump, and I could really feel it hurt. I eventually went to my doctor who set me up with a colonoscopy. He could not get very far because there was a giant tumor blocking my colon.”
After a bunch of tests and biopsies, Fadely would be diagnosed with colon cancer. At Northwest Health - Porter, Fadely began his treatments. To this day, Fadely remembers the first time meeting Dr. Tareq Braik when the doctor told Fadely about all of the cancer stages.
“I remember sitting down in the room where Braik said, ‘Okay, David, this is stage I cancer. This is stage II cancer. This is stage III, and he kept going,’” said Fadely. “I'm sitting there with my wife. I'm squeezing her hand while freaking out.”
Fadely had a friend who died from stage III colon cancer that did not make it two years after diagnosis, which frightened Fadley at the time of diagnosis. Braik additionally diagnosed Fadely with stage IV colon cancer and also discovered he had spots on his liver that were cancerous.
“I remember the first thing I said to him was, ‘So you're telling me I'm dead,’” said Fadely. “He said ‘It's come a long way, but we think you have a good shot at treatment. You are young.’ I was 39 at the time. I remember thinking I was dead.”
Braik came up with a plan that would have Fadely ultimately do 12 chemotherapy sessions and have surgery to cut the tumor in his colon and liver. The plan started with four chemo sessions that were tough for Fadely. The treatments, however, worked so well that some of the tumors on his liver disappeared.
After the four chemo sessions, Fadely had to have surgery. Braik presented Fadely with two options – go with a doctor at Northwest Health or another doctor at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis. He ended up choosing the doctor in Indianapolis who shared the name of a character from the TV series “House,” one of the first shows that Fadely and his wife watched together as a couple.
“That was a sign,” said Fadely. “It was in September of 2020 that I had my surgery. I left the football field coaching my Pop Warner team, got in the car, drove to Indianapolis and had the surgery the next morning.”
He stayed in Indianapolis for a week while he was recovering from the surgery. When he recovered, it was time for more football, so Fadely got back in the car to head back to Portage. He was given a cane and chair which was enough for Fadely to coach the game.
“For a while after my surgery, I couldn't work,” said Fadely. “All I was doing at that time was coaching youth football. Those kids are great. Coaching that team actually got me through this whole thing.”
Unfortunately due to timing, Fadely lost his job at DirecTV. He was offered a new job, but decided to go back to school as Fadely had originally dropped out of college to take care of his family. Going to Indiana University Northwest, Fadely went back to study secondary education.
“One of the blessings of the whole thing was that I was able to go back and finish school,” said Fadely. “My wife was great. She held down the fort while I did that. I finished school and ended up teaching at Willow Creek Middle School.”
Another blessing was that Fadely was able to have the opportunity to get onto the Portage High School varsity football team coaching staff. The kids who were 12 at the time of his battle with cancer were able to stay with their coach at the high school level.
“Everybody at the middle school has been great and supportive when I go to get my check ups,” said Fadely. “The new coach at Portage High School is really supportive all the time and he actually is the one that got me this teaching job. I'm very thankful to him for that.”
In the spring of 2021, one year after diagnosis, Fadely was declared cancer free. With the support of his wife, kids, and all of his family and friends, he won his bout with cancer. He also could not have done it without his professional wrestling family and his fans. Fadely has been professionally wrestling for 20 years, but he had to quit during his battle with cancer. One of his main goals during his fight was to get back into the ring to finish on his own terms. Now cancer free, he is able to do so with all of the support behind.