St. Joseph man twice survives brain cancer, writes book

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- Johnny Cathcart knows a thing or two about endurance.

The 23-year-old St. Joseph native showed himself way back in fourth grade to be a distance runner. And he kept running, even through all the headaches he had in sixth grade.

But two weeks into his seventh grade cross country season, the headaches became too bad to ignore. He began experiencing double vision, and his dad, a doctor, grew concerned enough to have him undergo an MRI -- one that revealed a gigantic tumor. Left alone, it could have killed him within days.

Johnny underwent surgery the next day to remove the tumor. Thus began a battle with brain cancer he fought not once but twice, first at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., during seventh grade and then again at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City three years later, after an MRI showed a recurrence.

After another stint at St. Jude's for radiation following his chemotherapy treatment in New York, Johnny returned to school, where he was now a sophomore. He returned to running and picked up right where he'd left off with the nickname -- Hotpants -- he'd earned in eighth grade due to the short, hot pink Umbros he'd borrowed one cross country practice when he'd forgotten to bring shorts of his own.

During his second cancer treatment, his teammates wore "Johnny Hotpants" patches on their uniforms. They rallied around him in support when he returned from treatment, too.

At 17, Johnny began writing "Hotpants: A Memoir" about not only his cancer, but also his life in light of it: his battle with God and his struggle to be accepted as a normal high school athlete.

He wrote most of the book, which he describes as "comedy meets philosophy meets cancer," while studying film production at Webster University in St. Louis.

This project finished, Johnny is focusing his attention on a documentary film about -- what else? -- cross country runners.

He's come a long way from the boy sick in a hospital bed with all the odds against him, and his dad thinks he knows why Johnny became such an unlikely survivor.

"In looking at the kind of kid he's become and what he's accomplished already, I just think he hadn't finished."