Kai Hardesty

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. It has been created to keep friends and family updated about Kai. He was diagnosed at age 23 mos. and again at age 6 with ependymoma, a kind of brain tumor. Kai is an amazing young man and an inspiration to all who meet him.


My name is Kai Sakamoto Hardesty. I will turn 19 years old this fall. I have a younger brother named Ken; we share the same birthday but are two years apart. I love cribbage, music, doing arts and crafts, and especially designing and building machines like a working hovercraft I can ride and remote control robots that I design, build, and install the electronics. Just before my second birthday, I was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor, ependymoma. I had a 14 hour surgery to remove it and then went through 6 weeks of radiation treatment at St Jude. I had clean scans for 4 years. On Tuesday November 11th, 2008 my scan indicated my tumor has recurred. I had surgery at Le Bonheur on November 26 and successfully removed this tumor even though I suffered a stroke. I went through six weeks of cranial spinal radiation at St Jude. At the end of the radiation treatment, I showed signs of radiation injury, so I did eight weeks of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I have recovered from cancer twice as well as the damage caused by the treatments. I graduated with honors from high school last June and am now ready for college. "I want for everybody to be healthy and happy," Kai says.