Austin Asher, 14, and his brother Dalton Asher, 13, are pictured Monday, June 6, 2016 in Lawrence. Austin is currently receiving chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma, but the heart condition he was born with limits doctors' options for his treatment. His aunt, Kasey Asher, is holding a softball tournament on Saturday, June 11, to help raise funds for Austin's fight against cancer.

“The kid loves sports,” Kasey Asher says of her oldest nephew, 14-year-old Austin Asher, of Ozawkie. So what better arena to raise funds for his fight against cancer?

Kasey, with help from some relatives and friends, is planning a softball tournament Saturday to raise money for Austin and his family.

She and her siblings “pretty much grew up on the softball field,” Kasey said, and as a little boy, Austin’s favorite thing to do was “going out to the ball fields with Grandpa.” Concern that he might overexert himself meant he didn’t get to play, however.

Austin Asher, now 14, is shown with his grandfather Garry Asher, of Lawrence, in 2003.

Austin was born with a heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. His mother, Kelly Copp, explained that usually with HLHS, the left side of the heart is underdeveloped — but her son, “the left side did not develop.”

Austin had three open-heart surgeries by the time he turned 3 in 2004. Since then, he’s been doing great, Copp said, until he started getting sick in November.

Over a few months of doctor’s appointments and hospital stays, Austin was diagnosed with pneumonia multiple times, and each time he kept getting sicker, requiring more testing. Finally in February, Austin was diagnosed with stage 4B Hodgkin lymphoma.

Hodgkin lymphoma typically has pretty high survival rates, Kasey said, but Austin’s heart defect has a significant impact on his outlook. Even just starting treatment, he has faced some major setbacks.

At the beginning of March, Austin started his first round of treatment for the cancer. Within a couple of days he fell severely ill and had to be rushed to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.

Doctors discovered Austin had a staph infection from a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter, intended to make frequent IV treatments painless), shock, rhinovirus and typhlitis, a life-threatening condition often associated with the low levels of some types of white blood cells that are common in chemotherapy patients.

“They didn’t think he’d make it past 24 hours, and he surprised them,” Copp said. “… He scared all of us. I have four kids; he’s the oldest, and I’ve been through a lot with him. He’s a strong boy.”

Some forms of chemotherapy — such as the one Austin was first given, Copp said — kill off all of the body’s white blood cells, leaving the immune system defenseless. A big brother to three siblings is at an especially high risk of catching any sort of bug the younger ones may bring home.

Austin Asher, at right, is shown with his younger brother, Dalton Asher, at Clinton Lake in the summer of 2014. The boys' mother, Kelly Copp, said Dalton has always been protective of Austin even though he's the younger brother because of Austin's heart condition. Now that Austin has been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, Copp said Dalton is even more protective — Where

With his new treatment, Austin is doing much better, Copp said. It kills off a certain few of his WBCs, but not all of them. Still, the family has to take every possible precaution, and it complicates everyday life quite a bit.

“I can’t even take him in public, to stores — when I go, I have to wear a mask and gloves,” she said. “It’s hard, because you never know what you’ll bring home, even stepping out the front door. Everything’s gotta be cleaned, two or three different times.”

Austin’s heart defect also limits his doctors’ options for treatment — they can’t take the preferred two-pronged approach of chemotherapy and radiation.

“Basically right now, it’s kind of an iffy thing on if (treatment) is going to work or not because they can’t do radiation because of his heart condition,” Copp said. “So it’s one of those things where they have to just keep doing the chemotherapy, hoping that works.”

Throughout June, Austin will stay at Children’s Mercy for three days of each week; after that, he’ll go for treatments twice a week until October. The frequent 115-mile round trips back and forth from Ozawkie to Children’s Mercy for treatment — plus child care for his three younger siblings, not to mention the medical bills themselves — are costly, which is why Kasey is doing what she can to help.

The deadline to enter the softball tournament Kasey is arranging, dubbed “Austin’s Fight Softball Tournament 2,” is 5 p.m. Thursday, and the entry fee is $175 per team. The tournament starts at 8 a.m. Saturday, June 11, at Clinton Lake Softball Complex, 5101 Speicher Road, in Lawrence.

As of Monday evening, Kasey had six coed teams and four men’s teams signed up. She will also be putting together a free agent list. A member of one team made an extra donation so there will be concessions available for those who attend.

This will be the second tournament Kasey has organized to benefit Austin’s family. The first, in May, raised about $1,000, she said. Austin wanted to attend that one, but Copp said he got sick and couldn’t go. Still, he’s appreciative.

“He’s all kinds of happy about the support and everything that he’s been getting from everybody,” Kasey said.

If Austin is doing well Saturday morning, Copp said they will attend until around noon and come back after 5 p.m., when it starts to cool off again. When the temperature gets above 80 degrees, Austin starts to get sick, she said.

Anyone interested in playing in the tournament can reach Kasey Asher at 785-727-9897, by searching for “Austin’s Fight Softball Tournament 2” on Facebook or messaging her directly through her page, www.facebook.com/kasey.asher. The family has also set up a GoFundMe page, www.gofundme.com/b9ufgj2k.

For now, the boy who has already faced multiple life-threatening conditions will continue to push.

“He’s definitely a fighter. He’s inspired me, that’s for sure,” Kasey said.