Twelve-year-old Flynn Lanferman has fought cancer on four separate occasions, and has beaten it each time. On Saturday, he will be in Ames at the Iowa-Iowa State game as this week’s Kid Captain.

By Gage Miskimen

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This week’s Kid Captain, 12-year-old Flynn Lanferman, is attending school this year for the first time in two years.

This is because Flynn fought and beat cancer four times. He had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a fast-growing cancer that affects the bone marrow and white blood cells, on and off for most of his life.

For each football game, the Kid Captain program honors a child undergoing treatment at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

Deana Lanferman, Flynn’s mother, said Flynn was first diagnosed with the disease in 2008 when he was 3.

“He was having unexplained fevers and nosebleeds,” she said. “It took three visits to the local doctor before he got a blood test, and they found his blood counts all wacky.”

Lanferman said the doctor sent them to the Children’s Hospital, where Flynn was diagnosed with leukemia.

He went through treatments and checkups for three years and completed chemotherapy in May 2011.

“He sailed through his first treatments, and when his treatment was done that May, we had a party in the outpatient clinic,” she said. “We went home and started to be normal; he was starting school.”

Lanferman said Flynn had regular appointments once a month to check his blood counts. She said the family got a call from the doctor after one appointment in November 2011.

“They had found cancer cells in his bloodstream,” she said. “The cancer was back for a second time. So we went back to the hospital, and they hit it hard with chemos we had never heard of.”

Flynn had his first bone-marrow transplant, requiring a 40-day recovery. Then he went home and was on “lockdown” for a year.

“He had no immune system,” Lanferman said. “He was on lots of medications, and had food restrictions, and had to wear a mask when he left the house. Once we hit the year anniversary again, he was good. He went back to school and started doing regular boy things again.”

Then, three years later, in May 2015, Flynn was bruising again.

“At first, we didn’t think much of it because he was playing soccer and being an active kid,” Lanferman said. “But we went grocery shopping one day, and he had a nose bleed again, which was a red flag.”

The next day, blood tests and a bone-marrow biopsy showed what they had dreaded was true once again.

Flynn started chemo right away and had a second bone-marrow transplant. Lanferman said Flynn recovered quickly.

In May 2016, after a routine monthly blood test, doctors discovered Flynn’s platelets were dropping. He had relapsed a third time.

In September 2016, Flynn had his third bone-marrow transplant, this time, a half match with his father.

Physician assistant Stephen Rumelhart said Flynn always “rolled with the punches” throughout his entire leukemia course.

“With his parents’ influence, he has maintained a positive outlook, putting faith in his caregivers here,” he said. “His body has held up well through all of this therapy. If you saw him on the street, you would never know he has been treated for cancer.”

Child-life specialist Kathy Whiteside said she has spent many hours with Flynn over the years and was there for his first bone-marrow aspirate when he was diagnosed at 3. She said Flynn always pulled pranks when he was in the hospital.

“One time, Flynn wanted me to take him to the hospital salon right before he was going to be losing his hair due to chemotherapy,” she said. “He wanted to get his hair sprayed red and blue and surprise his mom.”

Now, Flynn is back in school and and will hit his one-year anniversary of remission in a couple weeks, on Sept. 23. Lanfermann said her son is doing really well.

“Flynn’s a fighter,” she said. “He’s a real fighter.”