Washington Football Team coach Ron Rivera was announced cancer-free after a checkup Thursday.
Rivera, who declared on Aug. 20 that he had squamous cell cancer, tweeted thanks Thursday for the support he received during his recovery and treatment.
“Thank you everyone for your prayers, texts, letters & notes of support & encouragement. It really made a difference in my own recovery & treatment!
That social media article came after his wife, Stephanie, and daughter, Courtney, took to social websites before Thursday to announce that Rivera had defeated cancer.
“Prayers are answered. Thx to all the Drs & nurses that’Coached upward’ @RiverboatRonHC and me and gave us the winning game plan to overcome cancer. The PET scan said it all, cancer you lost this fight!
Added Courtney, that works as a producer for Washington’s social media:”Only gotten off the phone with mom and dad leaving the hospital @RiverboatRonHC is cancer free!!!”
Ron Rivera needed to undergo seven months of treatment for the cancer during the season, which included three rounds of chemotherapy and proton treatment five days per week.
He stopped his remedy Oct. 26. That afternoon, a movie captured the moment when he walked down the hallway of the Inova Schar Cancer Institute Inspired by cheering medical employees — all wearing black”Rivera Powerful” T-shirts — culminating in his ringing a bell to signify the end.
Although his prediction was great from the beginning, the treatments took a toll. He needed to use a golf cart during his energy level diminished. But he missed just 3 clinics and never missed a match, though he admitted that one week in the season he was close to stopping. However he pushed through.
He did need to correct his everyday routine. He’d take naps throughout the day — following videoconference sessions with colleagues, for instance. His wife or kid could push him home from the late afternoon or early evening as fatigue overwhelmed him.
“At times you get nauseous,” he stated in October. “At times your balance is messed around with, almost a sense of vertigo. And then the nausea. It strikes you in any time, anywhere. However, the fatigue, heading out to practice it limited me, and that disturbs me because I can’t coach how I coach.”
Rivera, 59, lost 36 pounds and weighed 232 at one stage — six pounds under his playing weight with the Chicago Bears in the 1980s.
“I was astonished. Normally our patients, halfway in, cease functioning,” Dr. John Deeken, the oncologist and president of the Inova Schar Cancer Institute, told ESPN in November. “Many of our patients toward the conclusion of their treatment are extremely close to having to be hospitalized since there are so many complications.”
Rivera and Washington were rewarded as it won the NFC East. Players said during the entire year that seeing Rivera fight cancer helped inspire them. The trainers said it made an enormous difference.
“This team, watching himunderstood when he said we are going to have chances and we are going to win and we’ll change the civilization; they saw it firsthand because they saw what he’ll undergo,” said assistant defensive backs coach Richard Rodgers in December. “He remained consistent in what he wanted .”
Rivera has stated he’d love to become an advocate for affordable health care. His brother Mickey died of pancreatic cancer in 2015.
“After moving through it and seeing just how expensive it is… you think,’Gosh, how can people afford this that are not in the situation or the position that I am in?'” He said in November. “That’s really helped to form my views, simply saying and thinking to myself, we need to have some kind of care in the USA for everyone.”