BYU’s head coach Mark Pope instructs his team during a timeout against the UCF Knights at the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024.
Former Kentucky Wildcat Raising Awareness, Optimism in Fight with Cancer
Dean Wells dominated opponents in the trenches. He was a Kentucky captain in 1992 and spent nine years in the National Football League. He tallied more than 500 tackles in his NFL career and still holds the UK single-game sack record with 5.0. Battling enormous humans on the gridiron isn’t the same as battling cancer.
“Show me who to tackle and I can do that,” Wells shared with KSR. “This is in the doctors’ hands and it’s in God’s hands.”
Just before Kentucky tipped off against Providence in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, Wells was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Since receiving the life-changing news, the Louisville native has gone toe-to-toe in his battle against cancer. He learned there are so many ways everyone can help in the fight against cancer. On a personal level, it starts with a heavy dose of optimism.
Fighting Uncertainty with Optimism
Many side effects occur while fighting cancer. You’re probably thinking about nausea or hair loss. Those haven’t been what troubled Dean Wells. Leukemia is a fickle blood cancer, one that has a knack for going away, then quickly returning.
The former Kentucky football standout immediately started rounds with chemotherapy at UofL’s Brown Cancer Center a little more than a year ago. After a few months of treatment, he went into remission. Things were moving in the right direction and the longtime season ticket holder was fired up to get back to Kroger Field. Just before Kentucky kicked off the 2023 season, Wells learned the cancer returned.
During this go-around doctors prescribed immunotherapy. It initially worked, until a scan right before Christmas revealed more bad news. Not only does leukemia take a physical toll on one’s body, he’s forced to play mental gymnastics while fighting this disease.
“So many teammates have reached out. ‘You’re one of the toughest guys I’ve ever met. I know you’ll beat this.’ There’s mental toughness that comes into it. You have to have a positive attitude that you can beat it. I’ve done everything that I can with that. It’s like the chemo either works or it doesn’t. You just don’t have a lot of control over it. You wish you had more control,” he said.
There is not much Wells can control, except his attitude. Rather than wasting energy and anxiety on what’s out of his hands, he’s remaining optimistic.
“Generally speaking, my mother was a very positive person and I think she kind of rubbed off on me in that regard. Not that I’m not scared and everything else you would expect with the possibility of dying, but you still gotta find a way to enjoy every day and stay positive,” he said.
His wife, Lisa, has also served as a rock throughout this process. Her first words after they heard the news were, “It’s okay. We got this.”
What’s Next for Dean Wells
Last weekend, Wells went to The Hill at Keeneland with some close high-school buddies and his son Jack, who is a freshman at UK. He’d love to be picking ponies at Churchill Downs in a couple of weeks. Instead, he’s scheduled to begin bone marrow transplant preparation on Oaks Day, the start of a roughly 30-day stay in the hospital, and that’s if things go according to plan.
