Kade powers through comeback from cancer

Now 16 and in remission since 2008, the Ballajura Community College student is back doing the sports he loves, including tae kwon do at ATI Martial Arts Malaga, where he's training for a spot on the Australian team to compete at the 2016 World Open Taekwondo Championships.

Although the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma affected him mentally and physically, Kade said he was "one of the lucky ones."

"At a young age I didn't know exactly what was happening to my body but I remember being in lots of pain and discomfort," he said.

"My parents and older brother had to dramatically change the course of their lives as they had to be there for me almost 24/7.

"I also had to give up my sport that I loved at the time."

Kade said chemotherapy affected him "immensely, as it physically and mentally" drained him.

"Each dose had different side effects; sometimes I couldn't get out of bed for days and others caused severe jaw pain and migraines," he said.

"Although it impacted my life greatly, I've always felt that I was lucky as some of the other children in the ward had to endure much longer treatments and sometimes the outcomes weren't always good."

Having only returned to ATI last year, Kade has won three titles at the ATI Malaga tournament, two second places at Low TKD ITF Invitational and ATI Malaga and one third place at the United Traditional Taekwondo Canada (UTTC) tournament.

Kade said his experience in the Australian team at UTTC was an "amazing" experience.

He said he became so close to team members he considered them his second family and looked forward to having a similar experience at the World Open.

"I've only had a small taste of what to come in the training for the 2016 Open Worlds Taekwondo Championships though, from what I've experienced so far, I can tell it's going to be intense and vigorous, involving many drills, sparring and even pressure sparring," he said.

"Though it will be hard and intense Im looking forward to persevering through the training sessions."