Boulder cancer survivor Parker Simpson, 19, to ride on float in Rose Parade

By Brittany Anas | Camera Staff Writer

It was Mother's Day, of all days, when the news came back to Parker Simpson that a tumor in his shoulder was cancerous, the 19-year-old recalls.

He was 17 at the time and a wrestler and football player at his high school in Aurora. For some reason -- he's still unsure why -- he laughed when the doctor broke it to him that he had stage IV cancer. It was just months earlier that his ankle had swelled up to the size of a grapefruit; doctors then discovered a staph infection and thought they were going to need to amputate his leg.

Simpson, who lives in Boulder and has studied at the University of Colorado, is now healthy and cancer-free after eight rounds of chemotherapy.

On New Year's Day, he will participate in the 2011 Tournament of Roses Parade to celebrate his new life. He'll ride on the Donate Life float, helping raise awareness about tissue donations.

He traveled to Pasadena, Calif., this week, joined by his mother. The 122nd Rose Parade begins at 9 a.m. Saturday.

"Now that the cloud isn't over our heads anymore, we can get out there and enjoy the experience," Simpson said earlier this week.

To save his cancer-ridden arm, Simpson's shoulder and a large part of his humerus were replaced with an allograft bone transplant from a deceased donor. The tissue donation allowed Simpson to once again be active. Rock climbing in Boulder and weightlifting are his new hobbies.

It's the eighth year that Donate Life is sponsoring a float in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade. The "Seize the Day" float will include organ and tissue transplant recipients, living donors and family members of deceased donors from around the country. They'll come together to celebrate life and remember their loved ones.

For Simpson, the donation has made him feel like he has endless possibilities, he said. Living in Boulder and attending CU has made him interested in studying environmental sciences.

Simpson's participation in the parade is sponsored by AlloSource, a Centennial-based nonprofit provider of skin, bone and soft tissue allografts used in surgeries. The company says the parade float helps garner attention about not only organ donation, but lesser-understood tissue donation.

Along with Simpson, Patricia Thomas, of Cody, Wyo., will ride on the float in memory of her daughter Kathleen, who died at age 31 of an illness. Her daughter's gifts of life included donated corneas and heart valves as well as bone and skin grafts.

The donations of Kathleen Thomas, who loved nature and the mountains, have been aiding people around the world, her mother said.

"I received a letter from the recipient of one of Kathleen's corneas, an 85-year-old woman from Nagasaki, Japan," Thomas said. "My husband and I were so touched to learn of Kathleen's gifts going full circle."

To register as an organ donorColoradans can register their decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor in the following ways:
Online at DonateLifeColorado.org
At the Driver's License Officethe next time you obtain or renew your driver's license
By calling888-256-4386