Kylie's Kids: Meet Griffin And His Pogo Stick

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Pogo sticking may be an unlikely hobby for a kid in 2016, but for this week's Kylie's Kid it is much more.

For 9-year-old Griffin Dahmen his love of pogo sticking isn't just for fun, it's helping him recover from a rare form of cancer.

Griffin loves pogo sticking.

"My record is 644," Griffin said.

So how does a 9-year discover he's a pro on the pogo stick?

"I went to garage sale with my friend," Griffin said. "We went down there and I got it, and then I started getting really good."

Griffin bought his first pogo stick for only $0.25.

While it looks like all fun and games, each bounce is actually helping Griffin.

"It mimics his physical therapy exercises," Jill Dahmen, Griffin's mom, said.

Griffin is recovering from a rare form of cancer.

"My knee started hurting after I played hockey," Griffin said.

Doctors discovered a baseball size tumor on his pelvis, which turned out to be Ewing's Sarcoma.

"They couldn't remove right away because it was too big and it would have been too dangerous," Jill said.

The tumor was so big, doctors thought they'd have to amputate from the hip down.

But after 12 weeks of chemo, it somehow shrunk enough for surgery.

Then, Griffin had another six months of chemo.

"I had to take really bad medicine and it would make me throw up and gag," Griffin said.

He missed a lot of the second grade, and had to stop playing hockey, baseball and football.

"All those things that Griffin loves to do were taken from him because of this baseball sized tumor," Jill said.

Griffin isn't quite cancer free but there's "no evidence of disease," which is the best case scenario for right now.

He made it to the first day of 3rd grade and is back to the sports he loves and, of course, pogo-sticking.

"A pogo stick, a football field, just running down the block," Jill said. "There's nothing that comes that we don't stop and go, we're so blessed."