Javon McQueen is a member of the Siena Heights University men’s track and field team. McQueen is a two-time NAIA national qualifier in 2016: indoors in the 60-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 6.97 seconds, and outdoors in the 4-by-100-meter relay that broke the school record at last year’s Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Championship meet with a time of 41.34 seconds.

However, on Dec. 12, 2016, McQueen was diagnosed with colon cancer, causing him to redshirt the indoor season.

“I was in disbelief; it’s not something you ever imagine yourself going through,” said McQueen.

Even before he found out about the cancer, McQueen said he felt sick and thought that he would not be able to perform ever again.

“After hearing about surgery and treatments I had to go through, I thought I wouldn’t be able to go back,” McQueen added.

However, after surgery, McQueen had other thoughts in mind.

“After surgery, the only thing I could think about was getting out of the hospital and getting back to track and the things I love,” McQueen said.

He said missing the indoor season was a very hard thing for him.

“It sucked not competing. That’s all I wanted to do during the winter.” he added.

“Just be patient with it,” is his advice for anybody who is going through a similar situation.

“The whole process: from finding out, to the surgery, to the recovery, and to the comeback, you just got to be patient with it,” he added.

McQueen was patient, and now it is time for his comeback.

“It feels good,” McQueen said, as he is getting ready to compete for the first time since the last outdoor season.

He enters his comeback season with many goals in mind. McQueen said his biggest goal is to become a national champion in at least one event and to become an All-American. However, his main goal for this season is all about getting back to who he was.

“I want to get back to where I was at before I got sick and to improve off last year, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to do that,” McQueen said.