‘You keep fighting’: After decades competing in football, Jeff Thorne is in the battle of his life against cancer

If there’s anyone built to handle a threatening prognosis, it’s Jeff Thorne.

Steeped in faith and pressured on football fields since he was an all-state quarterback at Wheaton Central High School under his father, John Thorne — whom Jeff Thorne later succeeded as head coach at North Central College, leading the Cardinals to the 2019 Division III championship — the 53-year-old is tackling his greatest challenge.

After a litany of ailments spanning more than three years, earlier this year the Naperville resident, a husband and father of three, was diagnosed with Stage 4 gastric cancer.

Following nine sessions of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, surgery in July at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. removed some lymph nodes, Jeff Thorne said. However, surgeons found the cancer that stemmed from a tumor in his stomach had spread to the point of being inoperable.

“If they can’t get to a negative margin” — no cancer cells remaining at the edge of the tissue removed, according to Kubtec Medical — “they don’t follow through with surgery, and that was essentially the case,” said Thorne, who nonetheless sounded strong and optimistic.

So, what to do?

“You keep fighting, that’s what you do,” said Thorne, who since retiring as Western Michigan University’s offensive coordinator following the 2022 season has been in sales with GoRout, a company that produces coach-to-player communications devices.

“There’s a lot of data out there of people who’ve beaten Stage 4 cancer by altering their diet and looking at alternative therapies that are available. Certainly we’re looking at targeted therapies, looking at anything that makes sense,” Thorne said.

Already he’s visiting a hyperbaric chamber and trying red light therapy to boost his blood cells, along with improved diet, supplements and exercise.

“If anybody out there has a story of somebody they know and anything related to stomach cancer treatment, we certainly would be open to those types of things,” he said.

Thorne’s family, anchored by strong Christian parents John and Kathie, has sprung into action.

Jeff Thorne’s sister, Stacey Siambekos, started a GoFundMe account to support funding of alternative treatments. Within a day friends had donated more than half the fundraiser’s $75,000 goal.

The day after Thorne’s surgery his son, Payton, the former Naperville Central and Metea Valley star quarterback, contacted two hospitals seeking advice. Payton Thorne also reached out to contacts at Michigan State and Auburn, where he played.

On July 19, the day Payton Thorne reported to preseason camp as a rookie free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals, he posted on Instagram seeking help on therapies and treatments, and a statement of faith.

“It stinks that Payton’s out in Cincinnati by himself right now, he’s in the biggest battle of his life, too,” Jeff Thorne said.

His 21-year-old daughter, Noelle, is his “chief research officer.” Proving surgeons didn’t remove his funny bone, Thorne called his wife, Joanna, and 19-year-old daughter, Lauren, “the food police.”

Thorne endured a series of health issues beginning in 2021, starting with nerve pain in his leg that caused numbness.

A cortisone shot took him through the 2021 football season at North Central College (Thorne went 65-10 in six years with the Cardinals), but by the following February nerve pain had returned. Thorne had spinal fusion surgery in March 2022, and right hip labrum surgery that summer.

He got through that fall calling plays at Western Michigan, then in February 2023 had right hip replacement. After four weeks of rehabilitation, Thorne said, pain returned and he had a spine stimulator inserted. That was removed after an infection in November 2024.

A man who follows only Jimmy Garoppolo, Sean Payton and Tony Romo in both passing yardage and total offense at Eastern Illinois University, and is a member of the Wheaton Warrenville South Athletic Hall of Fame, Thorne has surmounted challenges before.

“We’re going to find something that works,” he said.

“It’s my faith and my family. I believe God’s got a plan in this. We don’t know what that is, but that’s kind of the beauty of following Jesus and having the faith that His plan is greater than anything we put in place for ourselves,” Thorne said.

“This is a setback, but the way we see it is setbacks are a setup for comebacks.”