Tackling cancer
Story by MEGAN GRIFFIN
and FAITH HARRON
Editor’s note: The following article appeared in the (Bismarck) Century Star February 2015. The story is about Century High instructor and coach Cory Volk and his battle with cancer. Volk and his wife, Annie, were instructors in the Garrison School System 2006-09. Annie also taught in the Max School System prior to coming to Garrison. Garrison High School hosted a fundraiser for the Volk family this past year.
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The doctors performed tests and refered him to more doctors with more tests. The lump on his hip isn’t quite as large as the growing ball of worry in his stomach. Results are awaited with nervous anticipation. Still, the lump doesn’t go away. June 17, the diagnosis comes: he has follicular lymphoma.
Coach Cory Volk teaches science at South Central High School and is an assistant for Century High School football. Over the summer, and the beginning of this school year, he struggled with cancer.
"[Once I knew], it was a crazy week as I kept going from doctor to doctor and clinic to clinic and my wife was teaching a semester of summer school at Century and our oldest daughter was playing T-ball and we were busy and worried but we didn’t know anything until June 17," Volk said. "And then it was a whirlwind of more tests and more doctors and more procedures. I had to have two scans, a surgical procedure to check my bone marrow, and I needed a port installed in my upper chest for chemo."
Volk did six rounds of chemotherapy. July through the end of October, Volk went in once every 21 days for a six to eight hour chemo session. It wasn’t until Nov. 1 that he was officially in remission and able to take a breath of life again.
