By: Johnn Jin

In Chicago 23,599 fans rose to their feet as a true fighter returned five months after his diagnosis of stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Liam Hendriks came as a survivor as he walked up to the mound to play yet another MLB game. The key to being a survivor is that Hendriks never stopped working. “You know the old saying, a body in motion stays in motion,” Hendriks says. “I took that to heart, and I kept moving.” He made it up to the baseball field, walked his dog and got coffee, while still being treated.

While celebrating his return in May, Hendriks was frustrated. His 10.80 ERA through nine innings was much worse than his 2.81 mark in the majors last season. Still, he is happy he has been returned and looks up to much more than baseball. “I’ve accomplished almost everything I’ve ever wanted to accomplish,” Hendriks says. “My goal moving forward is trying to help that next person out, and that’s something that I take a lot more pride in than anything I do on the field.”

“I’ve gone through the stages of mediocrity. I’ve gone through the stages of being the best on the field. I’ve been through the ups and downs,” he says. “I know that even if I’m not physically 100 percent, I can be myself to be the best on that day. That’s the way I need to attack everything.”

Hendriks tells the story of his cancer journey not for himself, but to inspire others. He says, “what’s 15, 25, 30 seconds to help ll someone up? I want to let people know they’re not alone. So if I say the same thing 15 times—but it’s that one story that connects to someone—I’ve done something.”

He maintains a positive attitude. “This happened to me and I’m going to make something positive out of it. There are a lot of people out there going through a lot worse things than I am. There’s no point in me sitting here and complaining because I’ve got relatively easy compared to a lot of guys,” he says.

While he is still returning to full health, his MLB journey isn’t over!