Kylie's Kid: Leukemia Won't Stop Max's Love For Baseball

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- We know the side effects of cancer can be devastating.

But sometimes it's the medicine used to treat cancer that can cause more problems. For Kylie's Kid Max, it doesn't matter if it's cancer or chemo. He's not letting anything stop him from doing what he loves.

Max doesn't really look like he needs weekly physical therapy, especially when he's on the baseball field.

"I like to play baseball and hockey," Max said.

"He's playing traveling baseball. His team was in the state tournament this weekend," Max's father said.

But this 10-year-old's game has been thrown a curveball. Last March, he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

"It was tough news to get initially," Max's father said. "Very treatable. He's on a really good path and a good overall prognosis."

Max was in remission after just two weeks, and on the baseball field just a few months later.

"He set some goals, he wanted to play in 10 games and one tournament," Max's father said.

This year, he's playing full-time.

Even though Max technically beat cancer, three years of chemotherapy are needed to make sure the blood cancer doesn't come back. And it's that chemo that has him in physical therapy.

"It is a pretty common side effect," Max's father said.

It's a side effect not from the cancer, but from the medicine.

"His ankles are weak so we're trying to build that back," Max's father said.

Weak ankles are hardly affecting his game. Most of his teammates wouldn't even know he's running with braces.

"Just for him to have a chance to be a kid and hang out with this great group and I think my wife and I think it's making all the world a difference," Max's father said.