Soccer player kicks off Cora Hair has found her way back to the pitch after overcoming a scary diagnosis

Cora Hair has found her way back to the pitch after overcoming a scary diagnosis

Sports Reporter Collective

Monday, March 31, 2025

By Randi Mendolia | Aspiring Journalist

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Doctors found two 5 1/2 centimeter nodules on her thyroid. It was cancer. This is a frightening diagnosis for anybody, especially an 18-year-old collegiate soccer player. 

Cora Hair, a junior defender for the Arkansas Razorbacks soccer team, was diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma during her freshman year. Last spring, her life was filled with needles poked in her neck, CT scans, surgery and radioactive substances in her body. 

Hair’s summer, on the other hand, was filled with running sprints, building strength and improving endurance. But how did she get from the soccer pitch to the hospital, and subsequently back to the pitch?

It all began when Cora could not shake congestion from strep throat over spring break. Running back and forth on the field, Hair remembers having trouble keeping up. After the team physician assistant felt around her neck, he said she needed an ultrasound immediately. 

“I remember thinking I’ve been sick for like two weeks and haven’t been able to get over it,” Cora said. “It’s probably just from that.”

After the doctors received the results from her ultrasound, they wanted a follow up, which did not concern her at the time, Hair said. She had other things to worry about.

When the athletic trainer asked her to leave a psychology lab she had one day, she said she did not think much of it.

“No. I can’t miss the lab,” Hair said, “but then our team doctor called.” 

The doctor sent her to an ear, nose and throat specialist who told her about the nodules on her thyroid. They needed to aspirate them and send them for tests.

“I think I kind of knew,” Hair said. “Usually, they’re not going to rush me in for something like this, right?” 

Hair said she believes she can read people well and remembers the doctors as stoic.

“He wouldn’t look me in the eye,” Hair said.

At this point, it was a waiting game – that was until a week later, where the team doctors requested to meet in a huge conference room. The setting unnerved her. 

“I’m screwed,” Hair said. “I’m done for. It’s not going to be good.” 

That is when they told the freshman defender she had stage 3 papillary thyroid cancer.

Around 53,000 people are diagnosed with thyroid cancer every year, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Women are three times more likely to have this cancer than men, with women in their 40s and 50s having the highest rates of diagnosis.. The disease is highly treatable, but the diagnosis was still shocking to Hair, and her family.

“We all realized that we needed to rally around her,” Gracie Hair, her older sister, said. “I think we were all generally positive and hopeful that she would be just fine, but also you feel worried and unsure of how this will affect her moving forward.”  

Hair’s doctors informed her that this was an incidental finding. It had nothing to do with her sickness during spring break, and the cancer had most likely been in her body for well over a year. 

Hair was referred to a vascular surgeon because she needed a full neck dissection. The team was still playing spring games at this point, but Hair decided to take a step back to figure out her surgery date. 

Hair said the doctors and nurses were supportive and explained that the cancer was not as serious as it sounded, but it was hard for her, an 18-year-old collegiate athlete, to hear this. She said she was just confused overall, but knew she had a good medical team behind her. 

“He eats, sleeps, and breathes thyroid,” Hair said about her surgeon. “This made [me] feel more comfortable that he had done this just last week to a 19-year-old girl and reassured her that she will be ready to train by June. 

Five hours later on May 8, 2024, the surgeon took out Hair’s thyroid, the two 5 1/2-centimeter nodules on her thyroid and 15 lymph nodes in her neck. She was out of the hospital the next day. 

She had a drain in her throat, and she said while it was not painful, it was uncomfortable due to the 60-70 stitches around her neck. Hair could not lift her arm or turn her neck around for about a week.

“I just had a really hard time sleeping,” Hair said. 

Two weeks after her surgery, in her hometown of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Hair went on her first run and went back to Fayetteville to begin training with the soccer team soon after. However, the second week of June she had to do radiation to make sure the cancer was clear. 

Before this treatment, Hair went on an iodine-free diet; no dairy, no seafood, no soy, no salt. According to Cancer Research UK, this diet prepares the thyroid cells, so they can only absorb the treatment.

Hair lost almost 20 pounds in just two weeks from the diet, but it really did not affect her ability to run and train. After her treatment, she went back to practice and continued to play soccer.

“I don’t like to be told no,” Hair said. “I went to the lake for five days for my radiation, and then came back and was right back in.” 

Hair describes that time as a blur. She was not really scared, but she said this made her realize that taking a step back would not be the worst thing in the world.

“And I also think it’s just changed my perspective a lot,” Hair said. “Just in the sense of being able to turn my head or use my left arm.” 

Gracie said she is so proud of how Hair got through it.

“It’s been amazing to see her be so determined and strong throughout her recovery,” Gracie said. “Let alone come back and continue to play at a top 10 school.”

Gracie said that faith helped the Hair family through the cancer crisis.

“Glory to God for saving her and giving her such a home at Arkansas,” her sister said. 

With a scar around her neck, Hair is healthy and continues her year playing division one soccer. The Razorbacks face UCA March 8 in Conway, Arkansas and March 14 versus John Brown University in Fayetteville. 

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REPORTER’S BIO | Randi Mendolia is a sophomore majoring in multimedia in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Randi Mendolia

Note: Featured photos by Randi Mendolia.