Appleton man beats the odds with tumor

APPLETON - As he gazed down at his little boy, Steve Maufort knows the smiles, the laughter... his life, is back.

"I'm here because of him," Maufort said of his 17-month-old son Tucker.

Today, he is able to share the sport he loves with Tucker. But, rewind to November 2007 and it was a much different story. Maufort had an aggressive tumor in his brainstem. Doctors feared he would never meet his son.

"It was the worst possible tumor in the worst possible spot and our goal was just to allow him to survive two to three months to just see the birth of his son," Neuro-surgeon Dr. Tom Wascher said.

Last spring, Maufort's condition was so dire, he has few memories of it. He does recall the challenges.

"Being a 30-year-old guy and going from being pretty active to not being able to dress myself was tough," Maufort said.

Dr. Wascher with Appleton's Neuro-Spine Center says Maufort's tumor was inoperable, so he began radiation and chemotherapy with a new chemo-drug called Avastin. And Wascher says against tall odds, the treatment worked.

"His tumor is basically shrinking away to nothing," Wascher said.

And as it shrinks, hope is growing for Maufort's wife Terri.

"I started to think, wow, Tucker's going to keep his daddy here," she said.

Terri says they used to live in fear, but now are living in joy. Like the moment this spring, when she watched her husband coach once again.

"Your heart just sings, you know you just feel a sense that you've never felt before," she said. "I never thought I would see that again and I was just so proud."

"It's just positive to know that you can do it, you know that it can be done, there's hope for for everybody and you can beat it," Maufort said.

Maufort is still being treated with Avastin. He is hoping one day the tumor will be gone completely, but is happy with his progress so far.