Koster loses his struggle with cancer

Brad Koster

By Patrick Donahue

Marietta Daily Journal Sports Writer

Friday night at Kennestone Hospital, Randy Koster told his son Brad it was OK to give up the fight.

Unable to speak, Brad answered with his eyes and a few hours later, the 22-year-old succumbed to cancer.

“He touched so many people,” said Randy Koster. “He hung in there, even though he knew it was an uphill battle.”

Koster, a graduate of The Walker School, was a second-team all-Cobb County basketball selection in 1996. He was diagnosed with sarcoma, a soft tissue cancer, earlier this year.

His type of sarcoma was so rare that doctors at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York named the cancer after Koster — Brad’s tumor.

A benefit golf tournament was held for Brad, where he and his father were members, at Dogwood Country Club on June 2.

Koster, who was 6-foot-5 and 226 pounds before stricken, had responded so well to chemotherapy treatments that his doctors allowed him to come home for the event, which drew 240 golfers.

Brad arrived at the course at noon that day and stayed to the end, even taking some swings.

Brad returned to MSKCC for his fourth chemo treatment, but the results weren’t as positive as hoped for. He lost more than 50 pounds during chemo, and doctors decided to give him a break.

Because the tumor was so new and unidentifiable, it made treatment more difficult.

He spent much of his time at MSKCC in the same treatment ward with cancer patients half his age.

“He fought so hard and he tried to have a sense of humor,” his father said. “The real theme is everyone felt so connected with him. People will walk away with a better appreciation of life.”

Funeral services will be held Tuesday at the chapel of West Cobb Funeral Home and burial will follow in Cheatham Hill Memorial Park, with the Rev. Bill Murray officiating.

He is survived by his parents Randy and Elaine Koster of Marietta; maternal grandmother Betty McCormack of Kennesaw; maternal grandfather Earl Awtrey of Smyrna; and paternal grandmother Janelle Koster of Marietta.

Contributions can be made to the MSKCC Research Center, attn: Dr. Paul Meyers, vice chairman, Dept. of Pediatrics, 1275 York Ave., New York, N.Y. 10021 for research of cancer like Brad’s tumor.

The family will receive visitors tonight from 6-8 p.m. at West Cobb Funeral Home.