Twelve year-old Timmy Player was practically born with a baseball in his hand. At six months old, Timmy was already throwing the ball across his living room floor for the family dog. Their games of fetch were a foreshadowing of just how much Timmy would become fascinated with all things baseball.

Following in the footsteps of his father, Tim Player, who played baseball on his Church League, Timmy started playing the game of baseball at the tender age of 4 years-old. Timmy is currently playing baseball on the Lakeland Highland’s Babe Ruth Baseball League. But do to arthritis; Timmy’s baseball career could possibly end almost as early as it began.

At the age of 6, Timmy’s mother Kim Player noticed he was complaining frequently about pain in his knee, and Timmy wasn’t a complainer. That lead to a big scare at 7 years-old when a Cyst formed on the back of Timmy’s right knee, and doctors told the Player Family that it could possibly be cancerous. After a very long two week wait for test results, the Players got the good news that the Cyst wasn’t cancer, but instead formed from fluid draining from his knee Joint. This was a symptom of a diagnosis that came soon after, Timmy had Arthritis. While many people think Arthritis is a disease for the elderly, Timmy and his family soon learned that out of 46 Million Americans diagnosed with the disease, 300,000 of them are children.

Arthritis often comes with accompanying and overlapping ailments. Some people even have several forms of the more than 100 different kind of arthritis that exist. Every case is different. In Timmy’s case, there’s every chance his arthritis will eventually keep him from playing baseball one day. But for now, the exercise on the baseball field is possibly holding some of the effects at bay a little longer. “Timmy is lucky each and every year that he plays with his team and they have told us that they feel lucky each and every year he plays with them as well because Timmy plays with all his heart” says Kimberly Player. She continues, “Some kids play because they have to, or their parents make them, but Timmy has always been passionate about baseball”.

Timmy is now a six-grader at Union Academy Middle School, and still playing two times a week with his league not including practices. However, over the last couple of years, complications have kept him from playing for months at a time. Last year, Timmy developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a common complication for some people living with Arthritis that causes paralysis and painful sensations in his legs. He was even in a wheelchair for a month. But even then his love of baseball played an integral part of his recovery in Physical Therapy. When therapists learned how much he liked baseball, they incorporated it into his therapy. Timmy would bounce on an exercise ball and pitch the ball at the wall for hours which led to his slow but almost complete recovery.

Still, Kimberly Player considers Timmy lucky compared to some of the kids and family’s she’s met through the Arthritis Foundation. He gets by mostly on non-prescription pain medicine which he takes every day, and occasionally has to take prescription-strength pain-killers for bad spells. “Coping with Timmy’s arthritis has put a tremendous emotional toll on our family. Many people are supportive and try to understand, but don’t realize the extent of how living with this disease at such a young age curtails Timmy’s life and ours” continues Kim Player. “It’s really been a great experience for our family to be involved with the Arthritis Foundation’s summer camp program for kids with arthritis at Camp Boggy Creek. When we are there, Timmy can be with kids that know first hand about the disease, and us parents talk and cry together. It’s a great support system.”

When asked to describe her son’s personality, Kim declares Timmy her personal hero, full of positive spirit and life. She answers “Even through the pain, he rarely complains, I have to look for clues that he’s hurting. He’s my encouragement! I hope his story will help to encourage others to help us find a cure for Arthritis”.

You can come meet Timmy Player, who is serving as this year’s 5th Annual Arthritis Walk Honoree on May 10th at Lake Hollingsworth, beginning at 7:30 a.m. But whether or not you can join him, you can support his efforts to raise funds and awareness by reading his story in his own words on his personal webpage housed on the Arthritis Walk Website. Click here to see Timmy’s page or donate to his efforts to raise funds and awareness and eventually find a cure for arthritis.