Family hopes 12-year-old’s arm amputation will get rid of his cancer for good

WACO, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) - A 12-year-old Texas boy whose cancer came back nearly a year after he went into remission recently had his arm amputated in hopes of getting rid of the cancer for good.

Terry Moore, 12, loves cars, Pete the Cat and building Legos. He’s known as a ball of energy who takes life head on, but back in January 2023, his life suddenly took a terrifying turn. His mom, Natalie Moore, says one day, they noticed his shoulder looked weird and took him to the emergency room.

“That’s when we found hundreds of tumors kind of in his armpit area on his right arm,” she told KWTX.

Terry was diagnosed with stage 4 rhabdomyosarcoma, or rhabdo, a rare and aggressive form of soft tissue cancer. He had tumors all over his body.

“It was kind of just all over. His PET scans lit up like a Christmas tree,” Moore said.

Terry had to go through 67 weeks of chemotherapy and 33 rounds of radiation, which took a toll on his body. However, the treatment worked, and he was officially declared cancer-free in July 2024.

Terry’s remission lasted for almost a year. In April, his scans were still clear, but two months later, he noticed a bump in his forearm.

“I’m messing with the bump, and I’m like, ‘What if there’s other bumps around my arm or my body?’ So, I feel up my arm, and I found two more,” he said.

Doctors confirmed that Terry had four tumors in his right arm and gave the family the option to do more chemo.

“If we would’ve done that, it would have killed his immune system, and surgery would’ve been out of the question. So, then, it pretty much would have been, ‘Well, let’s make him comfortable,’” Moore said.

So, Terry and his parents decided to go with another option: amputating his arm.

“At first, I said, ‘Cut it off.’ Then, I changed my mind to chemo, and then, I changed it again: ‘Cut it off,’” Terry said.

“He’s like, ‘Take the cancer out,’” Moore said.

Now, two weeks post-surgery, Terry still has phantom pains, but losing his arm hasn’t slowed him down at all.

“He’s already driven his go-kart. We were building Legos. He used his feet to hold the Lego and used his mouth to attach the pieces,“ Moore said.

Soon, Terry will start occupational therapy, and he still has a year’s worth of chemo to make sure the cancer doesn’t come back.

“The fight’s not over,” Moore said. “It never is for any child that has cancer.”

But no matter what, the family knows there are thousands of people rooting for Terry.

“We got one crazy support system,” Moore said.

The family is asking for prayers. Any updates will be shared to their Facebook page named “Terry’s Fight.”