Beauties and the beast: Two high school athletes who battled same bone cancer go to prom

AVON -- On those dark, excruciating nights when the aftermath of a brutal chemo treatment would set in, as the nausea invaded her body, as the scary thoughts began to creep into her mind and she couldn't sleep, Vivian Eagle would call Cade Thompson.

Cade was the only person on earth Vivian knew who could understand what she was going through. How awful this bone cancer was, this beast that had invaded Vivian and Cade's left legs in almost the exact same spot.

On those phone calls, Vivian and Cade would try to find ways to laugh, to find hope and they would try to forget the moment they learned their high school sports careers would have to take a back seat to an opponent tougher than any they had ever faced. This opponent was trying to take their lives.

The beast came calling for Vivian in January 2022, just after she finished her sophomore volleyball season at Avon High, just after she made an elite club team, a team she played on at just one tournament before her cancer diagnosis came.

It started as a dull pain in Vivian's left knee that turned into a bump that kept growing, which turned into horrific pain that turned into Vivian's knee locking up, not being able to jump or dive and barely even able to walk.

Her volleyball coaches noticed Vivian was limping at practices. Her leg was giving out. Vivian's parents, both college athletes, tried everything they could to make it better. But nothing worked.

After scans, tests and biopsies were done, Vivian sat with the doctor and listened, terrified, as he told her the beast had a name. Osteosarcoma. Vivian had an aggressive bone cancer, a tumor in her leg that was more than five inches long.

"My heart dropped," says Vivian, 17. "I was like, ‘What? Cancer? And what about volleyball?’ I had just gotten to play in my first tournament and then I got the diagnosis."

Eighteen months before the beast came for Vivian, it came for Cade Thompson, osteosarcoma in his left leg.

It was July 2020 just before his sophomore season and football workouts were about to begin at Ben Davis, where Cade had started as a freshman wide receiver. To get ready for workouts, Cade was running routes with his brother, Broc, with Division I college dreams swirling in his head.

But Cade's footwork was off on that hot July day and he could barely run. Broc pulled him aside: "You've got to give it 100%. Why aren't you trying hard?" Cade was trying as hard as he could, but he had a throbbing pain in his left knee.

Cade went to the doctor where tests, scans and biopsies were ordered. When the results came back, Cade's parents struggled through the toughest conversation of their lives, telling their son he had cancer.

As his parents cried, all Cade could think about was football. "Does the cancer mean," he asked his parents, "I won't be able to play this season?"

The beast named osteosarcoma came calling for Vivian and Cade and it wreaked havoc on their sports dreams. Neither will be able to play in college due to surgeries and reconstruction. Vivian's high school sports career is over, too.

But the beast did not win this game. Beauty won this game.

Because of osteosarcoma, a deep friendship was forged between Vivian and Cade, a kind of bond that can only form amid chemotherapy, surgeries, fatigue, nausea and brutal moments of despair.

Vivian, now a junior at Avon, and Cade, a senior at Ben Davis, became best friends. Cade was the warrior who had survived, helping Vivian as she battled her fiercest opponent. Vivian was the person Cade turned to, who could understand his fear as he went in for scans to find out if the cancer had returned.

Their friendship, born amid tragedy, fear and desperate hope, was the silver lining of the worst times of their lives. It was wonderful and magnificent, like beauty fighting the beast.

But as Vivian went to Avon's prom Saturday night in a yellow dress that Cade said made her look just like Belle, the beast wasn't there. Just beauty. Just Vivian and Cade going to prom together, cancer free.

'I can't do anything with my hair'

Before Cade would lift Vivian into his arms atop a waterfall at Friendship Gardens Park in Plainfield for their prom photos, Vivian sat in a chair at Salon D'va in Avon getting her makeup done.

Vivian finished her last chemo treatment in October and, when it was over, the long, straight dark hair that used to cascade down her back was gone. Her hair has started to grow back curly with highlights, but it is still just inches long.

The makeup appointment for Vivian was a surprise from her aunt, Roxanne Wilson, and grandma, Lynn Merrill. Vivian was ecstatic to get her makeup done and she knew exactly what she wanted.

"Since I can't do anything with my hair," Vivian told Sabrina Fraley, her makeup artist at Salon D'va, "I want my eyes to be really dramatic."

As Fraley covered Vivian's eyelids in shimmery gold and her lips in mauve, her mom, Katrina Eagle, stood talking about the battle Vivian has been through.

Because of the aggressiveness of her tumor, Vivian was put on the highest doses of chemo, just low enough that it wouldn't kill her, Katrina said. She was admitted to the hospital so doctors could monitor her kidneys and heart.

Vivian's treatments lasted 38 weeks, she spent 80 nights in the hospital, she had 32 chemo infusions, one major surgery, two emergency room visits and 12 units of blood transfused.

Looking back now, Vivian isn't exactly sure how she got through it. Even the strongest nausea pills didn't keep Vivian from throwing up. And she suffered from the kind of fatigue that sleep didn't fix. But Vivian did get through it, just like Cade.

Both Vivian and Cade are currently NED, which means no evidence of disease. Vivian has scans every three months and, on prom night as she danced in her yellow dress — the ribbon color of osteosarcoma — she was seven months cancer free.

Cade celebrated two years of remission last month. He played his senior football season and is the left fielder on the baseball team.

"I feel really good. I'm back to dunking and doing back flips and stuff like that," said Cade, 18. "I'm not technically supposed to, but when I meet with my doctors, they're super amazed how I'm able to do these things."

There are still the routine scans Cade has to undergo, just like Vivian, to make sure the cancer hasn't returned. Doctors don't consider cancer cured until a patient has been NED for five years.

Osteosarcoma has a relapse rate of 30% to 50% and the nights before Vivian and Cade have scans are scary. They fall asleep wondering if this will be the appointment that reveals their cancer has come back. They reach out to one another for good vibes and for ways to take their minds off of the fear.

Cade is hilarious, Vivian says. He always makes her laugh and forget the bad stuff. Vivian is a spitfire who reassures Cade everything is going to be OK.

Vivian and Cade are not boyfriend and girlfriend. They are something better than that, says Vivian. They are best friends brought together by cancer and their moms, who knew they needed one another.

'If Cade can do it, Vivian can do it'

Katrina Eagle is a teacher at Ben Davis' freshman center. She didn't have Cade in class but she knew of him as a star athlete. She had been to his football games and had heard about his cancer diagnosis and remembers thinking how awful that must be for his family.

Katrina learned exactly how awful it really was in January 2022. Katrina said she was "walking around numb" after Vivian's cancer diagnosis when she went to talk to Ben Davis' vice principal, Marc Renaud, about time off for Vivian's treatments. He told her to take all the time she needed.

Then when Renaud learned the details of Vivian's diagnosis, osteosarcoma in her left leg, he asked Katrina if she knew about Cade and if she would want to connect with his mom, Charon Thompson.

"And I said, 'Yes, yes, definitely,' because we had no idea where this path was going to go," Katrina said. "And I think that's sometimes the scariest. I mean having the cancer is scary but not even knowing what's in front of you, taking a step was terrifying."

Renaud called Charon to tell her about a Ben Davis teacher whose daughter had been diagnosed with the same type of cancer as Cade. He asked Charon if she would be willing to speak to Katrina.

"And it just hit me in that moment," Charon said. "This is the why."

When Cade was diagnosed, Charon tried not to think, "Why us? Why my kid? Why did this have to happen to our family?" But those thoughts crept in anyway.

"So in that moment he told me the Eagle story, I realized this is our why," Charon said. "It was therapeutic to be on the outside looking into a journey that we had just gone through and to be able to help them and to be able to offer that reassurance. If Cade can do it, Vivian can do it."

When Charon and Katrina talked for the first time, Katrina said she finally felt some peace and comfort. Charon didn't sugarcoat the pain and struggles Vivian would face, but she gave Katrina advice on getting through them and she gave her hope.

"Charon told me to look for the silver linings and to keep in mind that this, too, shall pass," said Katrina. "Charon said, 'Put your best foot forward each day. Some days it will be a struggle to even get out of bed, but get up and put your best foot forward.'"

As Katrina and Charon formed a bond, they quickly decided that Cade and Vivian should connect, too.

"To be so close in age, to be athletes who've had the path they cultivated closed, those doors closed, and have to find their new path," Katrina said. "And to go through what they went through, the trauma, and to have that person with those same experiences to be able to talk to? A lot of kids don't have that. Cade and Vivian did and it helped her so, so much."

A promise: 'I'll take you to prom'

Just after Vivian's diagnosis, the Eagle and Thompson families met in the food court at Greenwood Park Mall. Vivian immediately fell in love with Cade's mom and dad. Charon was so pretty and kind. Ryan Thompson called Vivian a "warrior princess."

Vivian was enamored with how outgoing Cade was. "He just made it really easy to talk to him," she said. As they walked around the mall, they talked about chemo and Vivian asked Cade what to expect.

"Then after a while, we weren't even talking about chemo, we were just talking about random high school things," Vivian said. "I was like, 'Okay, I like this kid, a lot.’”

Vivian and Cade exchanged phone numbers that night and, as the days, weeks and months passed, a beautiful friendship was formed.

As Vivian fought through cancer, she relied on Cade. He would always tell her to smile. He would tell her to find a little kid on her floor at Riley Hospital for Children and look into their face. Nine times out of 10, he told her, they are smiling.

"And if they can smile," Cade said to Vivian, "you can smile, too."

Cade encouraged Vivian to think about all the good things in her life and to dream of a life after cancer. And as Cade helped Vivian through her battle, he learned something, too.

He was in awe of how strong Vivian was. When Cade had cancer, he just wanted to be left alone, to not talk to anyone and to be cut off from the world, he said.

"Viv was posting videos. She was still there trying to hang out with her friends," Cade said. "I'm just like, 'She doesn't get how strong that was. She was still making people happy.' And I thought that was amazing."

Vivian said what Cade did for her was amazing. "He was just always there for me and somehow always made me feel better."

And so as Vivian finished chemo in the fall, she had one person she wanted by her side at Avon's homecoming. She asked Cade to go with her, but Cade had already made plans he couldn't cancel that night.

"I was like, 'I am so, so sorry.' I felt so bad," Cade said. But then he had an idea.

"Why don't I make you a promise?" he told Vivian. "I'll take you to prom."

'Just to see her have a chance to live'

Vivian and Cade started talking about what color dress she should wear. Cade told Vivian it was her choice, that this was her night and she deserved anything she wanted.

But Vivian couldn't decide on a color, so she turned to Cade, who she said has the most amazing style of any guy she's ever met. Cade suggested she wear yellow, the ribbon color for osteosarcoma.

"I was like, oh my gosh," Vivian said. "That's a great idea. That is perfect."

Vivian set out with her sister, Audrey, a sophomore at Avon who was also going to prom, to find two perfect dresses at Xo by Sophia's, a shop in Indianapolis. Vivian said she knew yellow wasn't a common color and didn't have high expectations, but when she walked into Sophia's, she couldn't believe it. The first dress she tried on was the dress she wanted.

"I was like, 'Mom, I feel like Belle,'" Vivian said. "'I want this dress. This is my dress. I love it.'"

But the dress had a price tag of $700 and Katrina told Vivian that was too expensive. So Vivian went to another shop and found another yellow dress, but it didn't make her feel like Belle.

Vivian told Charon how disappointed she was that she wouldn't be able to get that $700 dress, and Charon had one thought in her mind: "Vivian deserves the dress that she wants. She deserves everything."

Charon contacted Xo by Sophia's and talked to the owner. Charon's idea was to see if the owner would let Vivian borrow the dress, have it dry cleaned and return it. Then Charon told the owner about Cade and Vivian's cancer battles.

The owner understood. She really understood. She was a cancer survivor, too. Xo by Sophia's donated the dress to Vivian to wear to prom and to keep forever.

"It's just the wonderful things that people do," Katrina said. "There are good people in this world. Really good people."

As Vivian emerged from the hallway in her yellow dress Saturday night, she looked exactly like Belle. But this Belle fought off the beast.

Katrina stood in the living room with tears streaming down her face as she looked at her daughter. When Vivian was diagnosed, Katrina often wondered, even though she never said it out loud, would Vivian get to go to her junior prom? Would she be in the hospital? Would she even be here?

"When you go into chemo, you don't know what the end's going to be like," Katrina said. "Just to see her have a chance to live … because you just take it for granted. You take that they're going to wake up the next day for granted, and you take the little things for granted."

Until all of that was no longer promised. There were days when Katrina wasn't sure that Vivian would be in a yellow dress at her junior prom. There were days when Vivian wasn't sure she would be there, either.

'It was almost like she was going into a game'

Vivian can't really explain how bad the osteosarcoma was. It's something no one can understand unless they've been through it. There were days as she tried to do her Spanish homework, she couldn't even hold her pencil. She was too weak to write.

"I would tell my mom what to write and she would write for me and I would just lay and just stare at the ceiling," Vivian said. "Like I wouldn't even get on my phone to scroll, I would literally just lay there and stare at the ceiling." Wishing all the pain would go away.

Vivian has always been a headstrong, fiery, strong-willed spirit, said Katrina. And sometimes that made it tough to be her mother. As a little girl, if Vivian didn't want to eat her carrots, she didn't eat them. Vivian's grandma would pick her up from school and Vivian would say: "I'm tired of being good. I've been good all day long."

But going through the chemo, as Vivian clawed her way every day to get to the end, to get to the next day, that stubbornness, that determination, that drive, became her biggest asset.

"It was an asset in sports and then it became an asset in her cancer fight," Katrina said. "It was almost like she was going into a game." A game that Vivian had to win.

'They are just two wonderful, young human beings"

Cade and Vivian are the kind of happy endings that make Dr. Michael Ferguson smile. He is both Vivian and Cade's pediatric oncologist at Riley Hospital for Children. When he learned the two were going to prom together, he thought that was just perfect.

"I was so excited, just elated," Dr. Ferguson said. "They are just two wonderful, young human beings." Who fought through something awful. "To be high-level athletes and get a diagnosis of bone cancer is not the easiest thing to deal with."

Osteosarcoma, the most common bone cancer in teens and young adults, can appear in any bone, but it tends to like the extremities and it tends to like the legs more than the arms. And osteosarcoma really likes to metastasize to the lungs, an oxygen-rich environment where it can thrive, said Dr. Ferguson.

Both Cade and Vivian were fortunate that their tumors had not spread anywhere else. But there was extensive treatment and surgery to keep the tumors from growing and spreading.

"You never know what to expect when getting chemo. It's just a battering ram meant to attack those fast growing cells and there are a lot of side effects," said Dr. Ferguson. "It was amazing that Vivian and Cade had one another."

Cade helped Vivian know what to expect with the chemo. "But even more so," Dr. Ferguson said, "it helped having someone that's been through it before when it comes to the anxiety."

The anxiety that comes on those scary, dark, excruciating nights when Cade was there for Vivian.

'This friendship is going to last forever'

Although Vivian's high school sports career as a player is over, she still helps out with the track team, where she used to be a high jumper. During volleyball season in the fall, she will be a manager for the team. And there is another sport on the horizon for Vivian.

After her surgery, Vivian tried adaptive skiing in Colorado for the Aspen Winter Games, hosted by the Shining Stars Foundation, which offers outdoor, social and recreational experiences to children living with pediatric cancer and other life-threatening illness.

Vivian had never skied a day in her life, but she quickly showed the elite athlete she was. She started on a dual sit-ski but broke it, going too fast, and then she switched to the mono sit-ski.

"She took to the slopes," Katrina said, "like a fish to water."

Vivian's instructor at the games called Katrina up and told her Vivian had a real future in the sport, which competes in the Paralympic Games. Vivian says, despite her mom's fears, she plans to go at skiing just like she did volleyball.

"I'm calling it right now," Cade said. "Viv is going to the Olympics."

After he graduates, Cade has plans for modeling and acting. Last week, an elite agency saw his photos and called to set up a phone call with Cade on Friday. He also wants to start a chemo-friendly clothing line for kids who have cancer.

Cade wants the models for his clothes to be cancer patients and he wants to personally hand deliver his products to the kids at Riley and beyond.

"When you're in chemo, you're cold or you're hot. Your skin is super sensitive. You're losing hair. You have lines in all the time, and you have your port," Cade said. "So this line of clothing is going to be very, very accessible. It's going to be very cozy and the design is going to be super cool."

Vivian isn't surprised at all that Cade is planning a future to help other kids going through cancer. After all, he was the one who was always there as she fought the disease.

"It's really hard to explain Cade," Vivian said. He's one of those people who don't come along often, if ever. "He is just so out there, so outgoing and so nice.

"He took time for me, was always there for me. This friendship is going to last forever."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.