St. Jude patient Bridget turned her shyness into strength

A limousine waited at the airport for 7-year-old Bridget when she arrived home after 10 months of treatment for bone cancer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

Friends surprised her in baggage claim. Her neighborhood street was lined with hundreds of people chanting her name and waving signs that read, “Welcome home, Bridget!” 

For Bridget, it was overwhelming to be the focus of so much attention. “I’m shy actually,” she said. 

But when you’re a kid who lost a leg to cancer, you don’t get to be shy. People stare and ask questions. “She doesn’t have a choice but to be the girl with cancer,” Bridget’s mom, Jamie, said. There’s no hiding it. Not that Bridget didn’t try. 

Now 13, Bridget has lived longer as an amputee than she lived with two legs. 

While Bridget still doesn’t embrace the attention, she has grown more comfortable with it. Instead of hiding her prosthetic leg, the socket of her sports leg sparkles with pink glitter. The socket of her walking leg gleams with embedded crystals.  

Sometimes, Bridget still wishes she was like everyone else. But while cancer took part of her leg, it did not take her life. Bridget got that — a life — and it’s a great one. 

So, it’s fine if people stare. She makes it worth their while.  

A fateful kick 

At soccer practice in late January 2018, Bridget got kicked in her right leg between the bottom of her shin guard and the top of her cleat. At a game four days later, Jamie noticed Bridget favoring that leg. It still hurt. 

At her pediatrician’s office two days later, an X-ray showed that kick had fractured Bridget’s tibia —and revealed something else. Bridget was referred to the local children’s hospital for an MRI, followed by a biopsy. 

In early February, the results confirmed a diagnosis. Jamie got down on her knees next to where Bridget was stretched out on the couch to tell her she had osteosarcoma. Bridget’s eyes filled with tears. “No, Mommy. No!” 

Bridget knew what cancer was. Her grandfather had died from cancer. A young friend had a brain tumor. In 2017, then 5-year-old Bridget had participated in Ride for a Reason, an indoor cycling fundraiser at a fitness center where Jamie teaches.  

The event raised more than $780,000 for St. Jude, and Jamie flew to Memphis to tour the campus. She left even more driven to help. In 2018, Jamie kicked off Ride for a Reason and then rushed from the event to catch Bridget’s soccer game.  

It was the last time she saw her daughter run on her own two feet. 

‘Best place for hope’ 

Bridget was referred to St. Jude for treatment, arriving at the Memphis campus seven months after her mom had visited. “We believed it was the best place for treatment, the best place for care — and the best place for hope,” Jamie said.  

At St. Jude, scans showed Bridget’s cancer was in her tibia and her foot. Osteosarcoma is the most common bone cancer in children and teens. If the cancer has not spread to other parts of the body, the long-term survival rate is 70-75 percent. If the cancer has spread, long-term survival rates are around 30 percent.   

Treatment started with 10 weeks of chemotherapy, which made Bridget nauseous and caused her hair to fall out. While Jamie prayed for those 10 weeks to end, she also knew each passing day brought them closer to April 23, 2018. On that day, Bridget’s right leg below her knee would be amputated with the hopes of saving her life by preventing further spread of the cancer.   

“I thank God we weren’t given a choice because I would have made the wrong choice,” Jamie said. “I wanted her to be healthy, but I also wanted her to be whole.” 

The name Bridget means “strength,” and when she was born, Jamie had counted her tiny fingers and toes: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Perfect. 

The day before surgery, Jamie took Bridget for a pedicure, painting all 10 toenails purple. That night, Bridget, Jamie, dad Eric and brother, Brennan, who was 11, toasted to no more cancer with sparkling apple cider. As Bridget slept, Jamie watched the rise and fall of her chest all night, studying her face and 10 perfect toes. 

In the recovery room after Bridget’s surgery, a nurse told Jamie she could lift Bridget’s sheet. Jamie couldn’t look. Not until a physical therapist later coaxed Bridget out of bed. 

Bridget stood on her left leg, moved to a chair and back into bed. The physical therapist asked Bridget to do 10 leg lifts with her amputated leg. Bridget did 30. That same day, she got up on crutches. 

1-2-3-4-5. Perfect.  

‘Magic of St. Jude’ 

Bridget got a pink cast on her amputated leg four days after surgery and then frequent cast changes to help control swelling. She was fitted for her first prosthesis two and a half weeks post-surgery. Three and a half weeks post-surgery, Bridget was walking. At three months, she jogged. 

After her amputation, Bridget stayed at St. Jude for seven months for more chemotherapy. With the treatment came complications — a blood clot in her heart, hearing loss caused by certain chemotherapy drugs, and osteoporosis, which left Bridget prone to a break in the femur of her amputated leg that required another surgery. 

“Even with all that, I saw the magic of St. Jude,” Jamie said. The medical staff became like family. Bridget turned 7, lost her first tooth and was delighted the Tooth Fairy found her at St. Jude. Then Jamie got to take her daughter home. Not all parents get to do that. 

‘You’re wrong’ 

At home in November 2018, Bridget jumped on a stationary bike for the kickoff for Ride for a Reason. But shortly before the actual event in March 2019, Bridget slipped at home and broke the femur of her amputated leg again. 

Told she’d likely walk again but probably never run, Bridget said, “You’re wrong.” The phrase became her mantra if anyone suggested she couldn’t do something. 

Bridget walked in six months — and then she ran. During the 2020 Ride for a Reason, then 8-year-old Bridget pedaled furiously on a stationary bike along with other participants. She raised $25,000 to add to the event’s $2.7 million total. 

Bridget joined a swim team, went horseback riding and took up golf. At 10, she figured out how to balance to ride her regular pedal bike again. Bridget played two seasons of basketball before deciding she liked volleyball best. 

“I want to do whatever everyone else can do,” Bridget said. She works hard to make that possible. 

“She works her tail off,” Bridget’s local physical therapist Kelsi Rempe said. Rempe also coaches at a volleyball club in Arizona, so she incorporates volleyball skills into Bridget’s twice-a-week sessions.   

“I don’t want her to have any physical limitations,” Rempe said, not in volleyball — or life. “I want her to feel confident that she can do anything.” 

After volunteering as a counselor-in-training at a volleyball camp from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then physical therapy, Bridget headed to a two-hour volleyball practice. At a tournament a week later, Bridget dove for balls and delivered powerful serves that gave opposing players little time to get under them. 

Coach Cindy Kirk treats Bridget like every other player, meaning she’s tough on her. Bridget made the team because she’s a solid player.  

“She belongs here,” Kirk said. “If there’s something Bridget can’t do, she finds a workaround. That will serve her well in life.” 

No hiding it 

At 13, Bridget just wants to fit in. “She still just wants to be like all the other girls, but she’s not going to hide from it anymore,” Jamie said.  

Bridget first walked in a fashion show to benefit St. Jude in October 2022. She met a model who coached her, and in November 2022, Bridget was invited to walk in a fashion show at the Bentley Scottsdale Polo Championships with dozens of professional models on a 250-yard catwalk before 1,200 attendees.  

Bridget loves fashion, but in magazines and advertising, she said, “I don’t see many people who look like me.” For kids like her, Bridget said, “I hope they see me and think, ‘If she’s doing that, I can do that.’ I hope they don’t let anything hold them back.” 

Bridget has realized, “I can’t blend in anywhere,” so she may as well stand out. 

Bridget still ignores the stares and lets her mom answer people’s questions, though when a young girl at volleyball camp asked what happened, Bridget jokingly told her she got bitten by a shark. 

Prosthetic legs like Bridget’s can cost $10,000 to $15,000 and are typically only partially covered by private insurance. She has two, one for walking and one with a blade for sports, both provided by St. Jude. 

Her prosthetist used spare components to make Bridget a prosthesis for swimming with stainless steel parts that don’t rust and a perforated foot that drains water. A nonprofit also gifted Bridget a prosthetic foot with an adjustable ankle so she can wear high heels like other girls. It screws into the metal pylon on her walking leg and locks into place.  

Bridget wears her prosthesis all the time except when sleeping. “It’s a part of me,” she said. Sometimes she even forgets about it.  

At her brother’s basketball game, Bridget overheard a teenager say, “That must be Brennan’s sister.” She told her mom, “Brennan must talk about me a lot.” Jamie reminded her, “Look down.” “Oh, yeah,” Bridget said, laughing. 

‘Never give up’ 

Bridget wears hearing aids provided by St. Jude and must sit at the front of the classroom to hear her teacher. Her amputated leg doesn’t grow like her other leg, requiring more surgeries. Last year, she had surgery on her left leg to stop its growth so she wouldn’t be any more off kilter. (The femur of her left leg is 2 ½-inches longer than her right.) If she has an injury or ache, she wonders, is the cancer back?  

Bridget said, “Cancer sucks.” But cancer taught her a lot, too.  

Bridget spoke about those lessons in July at the fifth annual St. Jude New Jersey Golf Classic and Dinner Party, an event her grandparents host. Bridget has attended plenty of St. Jude fundraisers, listening as her mom — who now works as a fundraiser for St. Jude — speaks about their experience. This was the first time Bridget told her own story. She did it because her granddad asked — and because she was ready.  

Bridget stood at the podium in high heels, her pink hair bow matching her sparkly pink prosthesis, and told the 300 attendees, in part: 

“I’ve learned that you have to try. You don’t have to be perfect at everything, especially if you enjoy it. Do it anyway.  

“I’ve learned to never give up — even if that means finding a different way to accomplish your goals. Practice — and keep practicing. 

“I’ve learned I can do anything.”