Winnipeg rower discovers love of sport after recovering from rare form of cancer

Katie Sierhuis describes the agonizing homestretch of a rowing race as feeling like her legs are on fire.

And she cherishes every lung-busting moment.

The 20-year-old from Winnipeg, who is competing in three rowing races at the Canada Summer Games this week, took up the sport after recovering from a rare form of cancer.

She'd been a talented young hockey and soccer player before she was diagnosed with ovarian dysgerminoma at age 12. The many months of treatment that followed thoroughly sapped her strength.

"It was definitely crazy to feel so weak, when you can't even walk up the stairs and do all these things that I think I took for granted," Sierhuis said. "So I think it's really special that I'm able to go out and be on the water, and work out and stuff. It makes me appreciate it that much more."

Ovarian dysgerminoma makes up less than one per cent of childhood cancers. She had been experiencing weakness, dizziness and joint pain for several months before a specialist found an alarming level of calcium in a blood test and sent her immediately to hospital.

Doctors then found a large tumour on an ovary and another baseball-sized tumour on a lymph node adjacent a kidney. Several months of chemotherapy followed.

In the spring 2017, Team Manitoba coach Janine Stephens was recruiting at the high school where Sierhuis's mom, Lori, works. Her mom thought rowing might be the ideal sport for Katie and her brother Riley.

It was the fresh start Sierhuis needed. She was instantly hooked.

"I like the personal growth that I can see in myself since I've started and then also the team aspect of it, of really working together to just do everything you can to make a boat go fast," she said. "And then also the balance between hard work,