Charlotte basketball star with multiple D1 offers facing new battle — a rare cancer.
When doctors told Tony Busby his 17-year-old daughter had cancer, he said he felt like time just stopped.
“I’m like ‘God, just give it to me versus her,’” Busby told the Observer. “The biggest concern I had, and like I told her, ‘I just wanted to know that you were going to be around, that we could see you get married and have the wonderful life you are supposed to have and be the person that Christ made you to be.’ That’s my only concern.”
For weeks, Tony Busby, the head girls basketball coach at Charlotte Christian School, wasn’t sure what was wrong with his daughter. But finally, about two weeks ago, the family got an answer: Breya has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer that means months of chemotherapy and time away from basketball.
Breya, a Charlotte Christian junior, had always been a basketball star. She can run forever. She has so many Division I offers that Tony Busby and Breya have to think before offering up how many.
But beginning last month, Breya started to be different. The flu had gone through the Busby household, and it had gone through the Knights’ team, too. So when Breya couldn’t shake a cold, everybody thought maybe it was that. Later, doctors gave her iron pills, and an inhaler when the symptoms lingered, thinking it was exercise-induced asthma.
Breya, though, never got better.
During a game against Covenant Day Jan. 16, Breya doubled over. Her teammates helped her walk to the locker room. Tony Busby rushed his daughter to the emergency room. They got there by 8:45 p.m.
They didn’t leave the hospital for a week.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a type of cancer that starts in the bone marrow, according to the American Cancer Society. It is rare, accounting for less than one percent of all cancers in the U.S.
“When the doctors told me,” Breya said, “I looked at the doctors and said, ‘That’s not right.’ But they brought me to Levine’s Children’s Hospital and they told me again. I just started crying. I didn’t know what to think.”
In Breya’s case, according to her father, the doctors told them the cancer is treatable. He said doctors expect Breya to make a full recovery. According to the St. Jude’s website, 98 percent of kids with acute lymphoblastic leukemia “go into remission within weeks after starting treatment.”
“That’s the thing that is the blessing,” Busby said. “She’s going to be here. It is very, very curable and we’re looking at five to six months of treatment, where she can get back on the court and be back at school and be normal and healthy. She knows this is a trial she is going through, for these months, and she will have a story to share with the world and to help other people and that is going to be awesome.”
Cancer in the Busby family
Tony Busby grew up in Orangeburg, S.C. as the youngest of seven kids. Neither of his parents graduated from middle school. He was always taught that no one is going to give you anything.
He became a football star in high school and played at Liberty University, where he met his wife, Laura. Busby later played at Gardner-Webb and finally Central Florida, where he graduated in 1995. He and Laura have four kids. Cortell, 26, and Devon, 20, played college basketball. Breya and her twin brother, Skylar, are juniors at Charlotte Christian.
Tony Busby knows cancer. His sister, Doris, died from pancreatic cancer three years ago, on Valentine’s Day.
“It’s like she goes from being vibrant to it’s pancreatic cancer,” Busby said. “The doctor said eight months and it’s 2 1/2 or three. She was the one who came to all my (high school) basketball games, football games, college games. My parents were always working trying to support us. She left but she always said, ‘Trust in God and always keep moving forward, but always figure out a way to help somebody.’”
Busby’s cousin is former College of Charleston legend Marion Busby, who once scored 29 points against Georgia Tech in 1993, when the Yellow Jackets were ranked No. 8 in the country.
Four years ago, Marion Busby’s son, Trey, was diagnosed with leukemia.
“(Trey) had an aggressive leukemia and went through treatment,” Tony Busby said. “He’s a freshman (in high school) in Pawley’s Island (S.C.) now.”
First days of cancer treatment
Breya’s first day of treatment was tough. On Jan. 20, she had a surgery to place a port in her chest so doctors can administer chemotherapy. She also had a spinal tap and doctors had to stick a long needle into her hip to remove bone marrow.
She has chemo every Monday and Thursday. But she and her family are approaching those treatment days like basketball game days, down to playing music to get Breya ready as if she’s about to go score 20 points.
“I have never had surgery,” Breya told the Observer, “and I really didn’t know what to expect. I was sore for the first day. It wasn’t that bad.”
For her parents, it was agony.
“We go to surgery and I don’t see her for two hours,” Tony Busby said. “She wakes up and we talk a little bit. It’s still ‘game day.’ They’re walking in the room with chemo medications and they’re warning us, ‘Don’t touch this stuff.’ I’m thinking, ‘They’ve got gloves on and this stuff is very bad,’ but you’re putting it in my daughter.”
Breya looked over at her father with a nod.
“She’s like, ‘I got this,’” Tony Busby said.
Doctors warned the Busbys to expect Breya to feel awful when the procedure ended, but Breya never showed any of the signs of feeling bad.
This past Thursday was Breya’s second chemo treatment. Another “game day.” There was music as Breya got into her mode. The treatment session came and went and Breya was up and walking around with the nurses because she wanted to get out of bed.
According to a GoFundMe page set up for her medical bills, she’ll go through chemo for 6-8 months, “followed by an 18 month chemo maintenance plan.”
She was released to go home for the weekend. The Busbys know every day, particularly treatment days, won’t go this well, but said they will take what they can get.
“The first 28 days are going to be extremely aggressive,” Busby said. “They’re killing it and looking at blood cells and the cancer is being destroyed maybe better than what they anticipated. It’s going extremely well.
“So far, so good.”
#BreyaStrong
Tony Busby said he can’t believe how much support his family has gotten. A local basketball coach has started a fundraiser and a social media hashtag: #BreyaStrong. In March, an all-star game will be held in her honor.
Busby said he and his family are receiving food and other gifts almost daily. The calls and text messages, he said, are heartwarming.
Last Thursday, hours after Breya had been released to go home, the other five coaches in Charlotte Christian’s conference, the CISAA, went to Tony Busby’s school to talk to him.
“Tony’s given so much to so many people through the game of basketball,” Providence Day coach Josh Springer said. “A couple coaches in the conference talked this week and said we need to do something to support the family. We met at Charlotte Christian School and their whole family is an unbelievably strong Christian family, extremely resilient and they had such a positive outlook. It was unbelievable to see.”
Springer said the entire Charlotte basketball community is pulling for the Busbys.
“We’re praying God grants her a speedy recovery so she can do what kids her age enjoy doing,” Springer said, “and that’s going to school, enjoying her friends, playing basketball and spending time with her dad. I mean, we all as coaches coach against each other and want to win, but gosh, this puts everything into perspective.”
Busby said the coaches’ meeting was inspiring and he plans to keep coaching through Breya’s treatments.
“That’s my outlet,” Tony Busby said. “But it’s more than just basketball. It’s about helping young ladies understand their confidence and how to compete in life. Breya wants me to continue. We’re still on this journey and things happen for a reason and the biggest thing you’ve got to do is continue on the journey.”
The Christian team is wearing orange shoelaces, the color for leukemia cancer awareness, in honor of their teammate. And like her father, Breya is staying positive, hopeful. She won’t be in school the rest of this year, she’ll be homeschooled, but plans to return to Charlotte Christian in the fall and play basketball in the winter.
“Instead of just sitting around and sulking in negativity,” she said, “I’m going to stay active, do my school work and watch a lot of basketball.”
Asked how she would remember this period of her life, Breya paused.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I think how I didn’t let this get to me. It just made me stronger, I would say.”
Want to help?
MW United, A local basketball organization, has started a fundraiser for the Busbys to help with medical costs. Visit mwunited.org for more information.
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Charlotte basketball star with multiple D1 offers facing new battle — a rare cancer.."
