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Pro golfers currently on tour with the PGA are wearing yellow ribbons, mainly on their hats, in memory of Australian golfer Jarrod Lyle. Lyle had been battling cancer and recently decided to stop his treatments. He passed away this past week.
Lyle was first diagnosed with Leukemia back in 1999. He underwent treatment and was able to beat the disease. It has returned twice since then, most recently in 2017. His doctors have been attacking Lyle’s cancer aggressively with chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, but in recent weeks, Lyle’s body stopped responding to treatment.
Jarrod Lyle.
Last Tuesday, Lyle’s wife, Briony, took to Facebook to share the devastating news with family, friends, and fans. You can read her heartbreaking post below:
My heart breaks as I type this message. Earlier today Jarrod made the decision to stop active treatment and begin palliative care. He has given everything that he’s got to give, and his poor body cannot take anymore. We’ll be taking him closer to home in the next couple of days so he can finally leave the hospital.
There is simply not enough time to get this message out to everyone individually, so for some of our really close friends and family I cannot apologize enough for breaking the news in this way. We have done our best to ‘control’ the narrative surrounding Jarrod’s illness and treatment, and as more and more people become involved in this final process I’m not sure how much longer this development will remain private.
Jarrod knows he is loved, and the thousands of prayers and well wishes that have been sent his way have kept him going through some incredibly tough times. But he has reached his limit, and the docs have finally agreed that they can no longer strive for a positive outcome.
My focus as of today is on our girls and doing whatever I can to get them through the challenges ahead. Jarrod will be closer to them very soon, and will spend as much time as he can with them.
When it’s appropriate, I will post details of a memorial service. In the meantime we ask that you respect our privacy at this difficult time.
Lyle’s wife has been keeping the public informed on her husband’s condition by updating his website with blog posts. Her most recent post was on July 22, almost one year to the day that Lyle was diagnosed for a third time.
“Jarrod remains a bit of a mystery to the doctors. He has had several tests and been assessed by different specialists. One diagnosis he has received is optic neuropathy, which means that there is a problem with his optic nerve. The messages from his eyes are not getting through to his brain properly, which can explain the problems with his vision. One result from his lumbar puncture showed some proteins that suggests an auto immune condition, but no other tests are helping to narrow that down. MRIs of his neck, spine and brain are all normal. A recent biopsy indicated that his bone marrow has been affected, but there are no signs of another relapse of leukemia. He is reliant on infusions of blood products to keep his bloods within safe ranges,” reads a portion of that update.
A GoFundMe page has been set up in an effort to raise money for Lyle’s two young daughters, Lusi and Jemma. At the time of this posting, about $54,000 of the $200,000 goal had been reached.
To read more about Lyle’s passing, check out this article:
