If you go
Admission is $5 at homers4heroes.com now and $10 the day of on May 7. Concessions, including $2.50 beers, will be open for the event, which will last from noon until 5 p.m. at AT&T Field.To donate to Sexton, visit fightlikenate.com.
Six weeks after completing the Chattanooga Half Marathon ahead of more than 93 percent of the field, Nathan Sexton returned to his Signal Mountain home to take chemotherapy pills that night.
Then, the 29-year-old husband and father decided to take up trail running. He is eyeing several upcoming races.
“Running has just been the best medicine,” he said. “It really has.”
The former vice president of operations at Bellhops is battling Stage 4 glioblastoma, an invasive brain cancer that left him with a 15-month prognosis last June, about 10 months ago.
A late March MRI scan showed tumor regrowth, leading Sexton’s doctor to recommend he stop taking chemotherapy and begin looking into clinical trials.
That’s where the public comes in.
A group of Sexton’s co-workers have organized the first annual “Homers for Heroes” event for Saturday, May 7 at AT&T Field, home of the Chattanooga Lookouts. It’s a home run derby tournament pitting 16 local businesses against each other, and its purpose is to raise money for Sexton’s upcoming treatment.
“They have just been so incredible at coming up with this unreal fundraiser,” Sexton said. “Obviously, we are going to raise money for me. But really, I want this to carry on and be something that they do every single year. Not just for me, but to pick a different hero each year.”
The event is open to the public and features fast pitch, long throw and base-running competitions for kids. Hitters from the local businesses will slug it out to see who can hit the most homers over a temporary 300-foot fence.
“It’s going to be a great Saturday, and it’s a time for the whole city to come together and rally behind one of the most amazing individuals in our community,” said Bellhops co-founder Cameron Doody. “The Lookouts have been right there with us on planning every bit of the way. All proceeds are going straight into Nathan’s bank account, and they’ve been totally open to making sure this event is about Nathan.
“The goal for Nathan is another $100,000,” Doody continued. “Clinical trials are in his future, and that means a lot of traveling and staying in hotels. So it’s going to be pretty costly.”
Sexton is trying to get cleared for a clinical trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham utilizing a drug called Nivolumab and another drug.
“What the actual trial will look like is me going down there every two weeks, getting an infusion of that Nivolumab, and there’s also another drug I’ll be getting,” Sexton said. “Basically, both Nivolumab and this other drug, they’re checkpoint inhibitors. Basically all that means is they activate your T cells to attack cancer cells.”
The hope, he explained, is that if he’s approved for the trial, it will reactivate some of his immune system and hopefully lead to reduced tumor growth or a reduction in the tumor.
In the meantime, Sexton is running.
“It’s really more and more true, the whole strength-out-of-pain concept,” he said. “Running has really helped me a ton in dealing with all of this.
“I had two seizures [two weeks ago], which was a real bummer,” Sexton added. “That kind of set me back, but I’m feeling pretty good now. I can’t really work. It sounds weird that I can go on a run. You would think it would be tough on your mind to run, but it’s really just very clearing.”