PAPILLION, Neb. (KMTV) — When Avery Krause was diagnosed with bone cancer last year, she had to step away from her favorite sport — basketball. But with the support of her family, her team and a local nonprofit, she's one step closer to returning to the court.
"Basketball is pretty much everything I've been playing since as long as I can remember, like spring, summer, fall, winter, you name it, every day, every week," Krause said.
She has always loved basketball and was diagnosed with bone cancer last year. She had to have her lower right leg amputated.
The diagnosis came at a devastating time for the Papillion-La Vista High School student.
"The first thing I thought about was basketball because I was like 'that's everything,'" Krause said. "I had just come back from a tournament in Texas like playing 5 games in front of 100 D1 scouts ... and then I just found out and I was ... crushed."
Her father, Corey Krause, described the family's initial reaction to the diagnosis.
"You're in disbelief, but I mean, you have no choice but to move forward, right?" he said. "Because how terrible it was at that point ... You know, our only goal was to have her here and ... she's strong enough where she can handle not having a leg."
Basketball took a back seat during her treatment and recovery.
"We knew how badly she wanted to be a varsity basketball player, um, so that was devastating for us just in the basketball on the basketball side of things," said Papio girls' basketball coach Cody Trofholz.
That's where Amputee Wellness Alliance of the Midlands comes in. The nonprofit awarded her a $5,000 scholarship to help her get an athletic prosthetic.
"It's such an incredible story and heartwarming," said Nate Wigdahl, the organization's co-founder said. "We just want to help her in every way that we can in order to get her back playing basketball at the level that she wants."
Krause is cancer-free now but is still getting scans. She's already looking forward to making a comeback next season.
"Even like the first steps on the court, like the first steps back in my jersey, like getting in, just the feeling," Krause said. "Everybody cheering, student section. It's all of it."
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