Even during lymphoma treatment at St. Jude, Owen crafted beautiful wood and metal goods

The little boy Owen had a mechanical gift. Or maybe it was the gift of seeing the possibilities within things. 

When he was a toddler, he always had a tool grasped in his hand.

His parents, Krista and Brad, bought him a toolbox with pretend tools, but almost-real wasn’t real enough for Owen. He wanted the metal and the heft.

It wasn’t long before he started taking things apart. 

By the time he was 5 years old, grownups were bringing him broken things.

Sometimes it was a toaster, its tiny pieces scattered everywhere and Owen in the middle of it all — a happy child. 

“We adults around him could see that he had an engineering mind,” Krista said. 

So, people lavished him with the gift of junk: ancient microwaves that had been gathering dust in storerooms, old computers and dead engines. Someone gave him a broken chainsaw. 

Nothing was too far gone for Owen. Studying how the parts fit together, he often found a way to reassemble and bring broken things back to life. And sometimes, he made something entirely new.

When he was 8, he and his cousin made their first forge out of a flowerpot, using insulation Owen had pulled from a broken oven. 

He made his first homemade knives out of old pipes and pieces of scrap metal and began doing woodworking.

For Christmas in 2018, when he was 10 years old, he got a small belt sander. He made a bench out of two-by-fours. With these things and a few other tools, he had the modest beginnings of a garage workshop. He had a great childhood, along with his siblings, Andrew and Ava Belle.

But then Owen started feeling sick, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® entered their lives. 

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In early 2019, Owen had trouble breathing, and he couldn’t lie down without coughing or choking.

His pediatrician suspected asthma and began treatment, but Owen’s breathing didn’t improve.

One day in April, Owen began a course of steroids. That night, Owen collapsed.

He had gotten up to use the bathroom and nearly passed out. Moments later, Krista heard strange, guttural sounds from behind the locked door. “I pounded on the door for him to unlock it,” she said. “Thankfully he was able to stay conscious enough to unlock the door.”

She caught him just as he fell. He wasn’t breathing. His heart had stopped.

Krista began CPR while Brad called 911. Paramedics arrived minutes later. By the time they reached the hospital, Owen had a pulse — but he was barely conscious.

At the hospital, “They started running tests, and his potassium and his other chemistries were so out of whack that the doctor ordered the tests to be taken again,” Krista said.

His lab values pointed to a rare and life-threatening condition called tumor lysis syndrome.

“Tumor lysis is when a tumor starts to deteriorate quickly within the body,” Krista explained.

It’s an emergency caused by the rapid breakdown of cancer cells, which release large amounts of potassium, phosphate, uric acid and nucleic acids into the bloodstream. These substances overwhelm the kidneys and disrupt the body’s delicate electrolyte balance. 

The imbalance had led to Owen’s cardiac arrest.

The steroid, prescribed to ease his breathing, inadvertently triggered spontaneous tumor lysis — a rare reaction to an undiagnosed cancer.

The next day, oncologists from the local St. Jude Affiliate Clinic at Novant Health Hemby Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, confirmed the diagnosis: T-cell acute lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL).

Learn more about the St. Jude Affiliate Program and how it connects families to St. Jude care closer to home

Kind and caring

Owen was referred to St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee, and stayed in the ICU for several days. He began Total Therapy Study 17, a clinical trial protocol based on each patient’s DNA analysis and built on a foundation of more than five decades of St. Jude clinical trials treating leukemia and lymphoma. 

Each morning, Owen’s doctor and care team would huddle to discuss his case, making sure Owen’s family felt included.

“Everyone was just super kind and caring,” Krista said. “There was this confidence level that my son was in the best place he could be.”

Still, the rigors of treatment were undeniable.

“He lost all his muscle mass. He could not walk. He was in a wheelchair,” Krista said. “He went from being a roughhousing boy to being so weak, it was alarming.”

Owen worked through physical therapy to relearn how to walk. Occupational therapy helped him regain coordination. 

Krista and Brad leaned on their faith in God and took things day by day.

“I remember hitting my head on the pillow and feeling, ‘Great, we made it through another day. That was good. Try to get some sleep, and we’ll conquer tomorrow,’” Krista said.

Owen watched YouTube videos to keep learning his craft and dreamed of getting back to his workshop. He and his grandfather whittled wood fly lures for a fly-fishing kit — right there in his room at St. Jude.

When Owen grew stronger, his parents would take him to a nearby woodcraft store. Owen made friends with the owner. 

“There are a lot of people that just want to see younger people succeed and enjoy the hobby like they do, and they’re just really nice and really thoughtful,” Owen said.

Good use

Nearly three months later, Owen entered a less intense stage of treatment, allowing him to return home to North Carolina and continue his care at the Charlotte affiliate clinic as he remained on chemotherapy. He also made regular trips to St. Jude. 

He loved being back in his workshop.

“He would go out to the garage and work as much as he could and then come back in and just crash,” Krista said.

Brad’s friend, who owns an auto body shop, shared Owen’s story with an online gearhead group, and the response was overwhelming. 

“We’d go to the door, and there would be this massive box,” Krista said.

Owen got well wishes, broken things to fix and tools: a laser cutter, belt sander, lumber, an orbital sander and more. 

“There are a lot of really nice people out there, is what I’ve learned, and people that care,” Owen said.

Owen started a website to sell his handmade goods. He sold coffee scoops, pens, knives and cutting boards. He got a lathe one Christmas during treatment and added vegetable peelers. 

Anything Owen received, he put to good use.

Legacy

On his last day of treatment in 2022, Owen handed a gift to his doctor: a hand-tooled pocketknife Owen crafted himself. He had spent hours on it.

Now 17 and a high school junior, he recently made a live-edge table and wins competitions for his work. He dreams of becoming a pilot someday.

“We know St. Jude really gave us our son back,” Krista said. That includes the important role played by the Charlotte affiliate clinic.

Owen’s family wishes they could thank everyone who gave them hope — people who heard about a child with cancer and wanted to help.

“They invested in Owen’s life and Owen’s future, and he’s still working at it and using those tools,” Krista said. “They made a difference.”