It was the last game of the year, and Michael Berger was standing on the free-throw line ready to shoot a basket.

He had spent his entire fifth-grade season on the bench, collecting shoot-around baskets and handing out water. He’d dressed for every game but since it was just months after his cancer surgery, he couldn’t play.

Now, he had his first opportunity to step on the court.Michael Berger

“It was shocking. And I actually made one of them,” Berger recalled as a toothy grin spread across his face.

Since he was diagnosed with spinal cord cancer at age 11, Berger hasn’t let the disease stop him. Instead, the high school sophomore continues to lead an active life, involved in golf, swimming and marching band. While he knows his cancer has changed him, he hasn’t let it define him.

“I never really pictured myself as a cancer survivor,” he said. “...I just want to be normal.”

Berger, 15, starts his cancer story on a fourth-grade skiing trip where a crash landing sent him to the emergency room with back pain.

While X-rays showed nothing, Berger’s intense pain increased during the next few months to the point where sleeping was impossible. In November 2003, Berger’s mother, Carol Loch, took him for an MRI.

After a glance on the MRI screen, Loch, who is a nurse, knew something was wrong. A pediatric neurosurgeon broke the news.

Berger was diagnosed with myxopapillary ependymoma, a slow-growing tumor developing in the lining of the spinal canal.

“Your life stops,” Loch said. “Everything in my life stopped that day...You just take over a whole new world. Nothing is ever the same again.”

Berger’s dad, David, who lives in St. Cloud, said his immediate reaction was disbelief.

“It wasn’t real for me until we were in the neurologist’s office with the X-ray,” David Berger said. “...I don’t think I ever felt faint over seeing a picture before.”

Read more about Berger’s cancer story and how he sees his life today in the June 19 Independent Review. The ninth annual Meeker County Relay For Life is noon to midnight Friday. See a schedule of events for the Relay by clicking here.