Mason Renner, a 16 year old sophomore, has been dealing with a brain tumor for most of his life. He’s had multiple surgeries throughout his life, but his most recent surgery was on January 24 for a returning tumor. Despite being debilitated by it, he lives a mostly normal life, like any other high schooler.
“Daily, my life changes a bit, but it’s nothing special. I get up, get dressed, and do my daily routine,” Renner said. “I take care of my cattle, my chickens, and pick up my friend with my truck to go to school. Just a normal day for me.”
Life is mostly normal for Renner. He goes about his day just like any other person, his hobbies and his life mostly unhindered.
“I walk through the woods, I go ride ATVs through the woods,” he said. “I like to work on my truck, and to work on my mom and dad’s vehicles, and I like to help out a lot. I just like to be outdoors. That’s my thing. That’s kind of where I relax and I can be myself.”
Renner spends a lot of time outdoors, but he is still limited in ways. Sometimes he is unable to work, unable to play football, and he’s unable to join the military due to his tumor. There’s still some good that’s come from it, though. He helps film for football, despite his injuries.
“I’ve always wanted to do all the military or do exotic things, or do fun things that I enjoy for a career,” he said. “But they said I could get injured really easily, and at very high risk. Same with football. I mean, I’m kind of glad I can’t play football because it’s the excruciating pain they go through when they get hit or tackled or whatever throughout the game and get hurt, I don’t know that I could handle it. It kind of sucks being on the sideline without doing much, but I got to fly a $1500 drone for fun, just recording what they did and practices. It’s really fun and I feel included.”
While he has a lot of activities, and other fun extracurricular activities, there is much more behind the scenes that he deals with that people don’t see just by looking at him.
“I mean, I can have side effects of it sometimes, you know, when I first had my first tumor, I had really nauseous to throw up all the time, I had terrible migraines every day for hours on end,” he said. “My whole life, we never really knew that I had it until I had my first tumor until 2016, when I had had surgery, we originally thought it was just my allergies,” he said. “We went and got my allergies tested and my mom had a hunch. I feel like something’s wrong. Well, we got an MRI and that day about four o’clock, and she got a call from Des Moines hospitals and they said that I immediately had to be in the hospital within the next hour for surgery.”
Renner has dealt with this tumor once before, thinking it was done and over. But he was wrong. When the first tumor came, it came as a shock to his whole family and friends, as well as himself, especially when the tumor returned.
“Actually, last week, last Wednesday, I went out to Iowa City for my checkup to be able to be ready to come back to school, but I found out that they said they’ve taken every bit of the tumor out that there was, though they did say that there is a likely chance that it could grow back if it wasn’t because it’s done it before.”
The good news is that the surgery was successful, and all of the tumor is out, Renner has returned to his normal life, and activities. His friends and family have supported him through these hard times, and will continue to help him in his everyday life.
“I still got to take it easy.” Renner said. “Though It’s refreshing seeing my friends again at work and school, knowing that they care about me.”
Friends of Renner’s look up to him with high hopes, and respect for working through his troubles, and for having such a positive impact on them, and a positive outlook on life.
“There’s a senior in our school, Taylor Kinney, he always tells me, hey man, I look up to you. You’re a great guy. He’s older than me.” Renner said. “I respect him too. He’s a good guy. I always look at people and think we may not understand what they’re going through, but the fact is that you have to understand that they might be having a tough time, and you should help others before yourself.”
Renner has returned to work at Fareway, helping customers, and putting them first. He is ordered to keep the loads light, and to not tire himself out too much. He continues to help around the store, even staying after hours if they need extra help.
“I had to take a few weeks off, you know, for recovery, but otherwise, I mean, it doesn’t really affect work, I just want things to get back to normal, and help more people out.”
Overall, Renner has recovered very well, and has returned to his normal routine. Even with these heavy burdens weighing on him, he remains unperturbed.
“You know, you just wanna try your best and things may not go as planned, but that’s the way life works, not everything goes as planned. You’ve just gotta keep pushing forward and allow yourself to be happy.”
