Jim Kelly's fight against cancer just got even more inspiring

Today’s big winner: Jim Kelly

In a week full of terrible front page headlines, this refreshing news was incredibly well timed.

The executive director of the New York Head and Neck Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan released a statement Wednesday that the former Buffalo Bills quarterback “has no evidence of the [sinus] cancer” that he had been receiving radiation and chemotherapy treatments for over the past three months.

Since taking his fight public following a recurrence of the disease in March, “Kelly Tough” has become an inspirational slogan for both his family and for thousands of other families who’ve gone through something similar. The willingness of Kelly’s wife Jill and daughter Erin to document the good, bad and the ugly of their struggle on social media has made plenty of people who’ve never met the man feel like they have a personal stake in his recovery.

As anyone who has watched someone close to them deal with a terminal illness knows, there’s a constant give and take between hoping and praying for the best but bracing yourself for the worst. When a tired but enthusiastic Kelly appeared at NFL Hall of Fame weekend several weeks ago, he had completed treatment and was waiting several weeks to take this week’s test. It was hard not to wonder if this was the final time we’d see him on stage in Canton.

After receiving the positive scan results, Jill Kelly was guardedly optimistic in an Instagram message Wednesday,

“We have come away from our checkup visit in NYC encouraged and hopeful,” she posted. “Preliminary scan results have necessitated the need for biopsies to be done in order to confirm what we hope to be true…that the cancer has been eradicated. We will not know the outcome until this procedure is completed. And so… We continue to PRAY, rejoice, live…wait and trust GOD who holds ALL things together.”