Former Bowie State Basketball Player Battling Stage 3 Cancer

Rasheem King vows to play basketball at Bowie State even though he’s battling stage 3 cancer.

King, 24, has overcome the death of his mother as a child and both grandparents as an adult.

Now, he’s fighting for his own life after being diagnosed with sarcoma.

“I’m going to keep fighting,” King told  FOX 5 Washington D.C. “This is just temporary. It’s going to make me stronger. I love you guys. Go Bulldogs.”

The university has rallied around King and is raising money to assist with daily expenses and other needs.

King is currently undergoing simultaneous chemotherapy and radiation treatments at a New York hospital and is expected to have a cancerous tumor surgically removed from his shoulder.

“Rasheem cares for himself. He picks up his own medications. He takes himself to appointments. He cleans up after himself when he gets sick from the chemo. He has cousins who do what they can but caring for a cancer patient is a full time job,” according to a statement written on the GiveForward online donation website.

King has raised $8,150 as of Monday.

“When they say God doesn’t give you more than you can handle, he knows Rasheem can handle it,” Bowie State head coach Darrell Brooks said. “That is why he is taking him through it. It is going to bring him to a better place. I really believe that.”

Once King is healthy, he promised Brooks that he will return to the court.

“He says, ‘Coach, when I beat this cancer, I’m going to come back and I’m going to play for you,’” Brooks said “He says, ‘Even though you are softer now than when I played,’ he said I’m going to come back and play for you. I got to get some of your toughness back.”

Donations can be made on the “Rasheem’s Sarcoma Battle” page