Above: Blakely Schroeder with her longtime coach Jane Fransen
By Joanne Vassallo Jamorsz
At 9 years old, Blakely Schroeder has already learned more about perseverance than many adults ever will. Her favorite part of skating is spending time with her coach, Jane Fransen, and performing programs she’s worked so hard to perfect.
But Schroeder’s journey to the ice has been anything but ordinary. Diagnosed with Wilms tumor, a pediatric kidney cancer, at just 8 months old, she once faced battles that made walking, balancing and coordination seem impossible. Yet today she glides with grace and confidence, a living example that hope and hard work can lead to miracles.
Schroeder was diagnosed by Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, when a lump was found on her abdomen. Within days, she was scheduled for surgery to remove the left kidney and surrounding lymph nodes in August 2016.
“Based on the histology of the tumor, chemotherapy was recommended by her doctors, and a port was surgically placed for chemotherapy to begin initially weekly at Nationwide Children’s,” her mother, Anna Schroeder, said. “She successfully completed her chemotherapy regimen in early 2017.”
During the time of chemotherapy, Blakely fell off the growth charts for kids, lost most of her gross motor skills and experienced neuropathy in her feet. She began physical therapy to learn to crawl and eventually walk by the time she was 2.
“Balance, flexibility and coordination were a struggle, and we started to look at options outside of physical therapy to help her build strength, but also valuable social skills with her peers,” Anna said.
Blakely then began the Learn to Skate USA program offered through the Fort Wayne Ice Skating Club when she was in kindergarten.
However, ice skating was a mountain to climb.
“The early lessons were very rough, and she struggled to keep up and would be exhausted after lessons,” Anna said.
She had to build an incredible amount of strength to work through muscle pain from learning how to skate. Learning to skate would leave Blakely struggling to develop confidence, but she began to build determination through each session.
Fransen became Blakely’s coach through a “bit of happenstance.” PSM Ice House Skating Director Alena Lunin reached out to Fransen at the time to see if she had availability for a new student, Blakely. She did, and so the journey began.
“It was a bit rocky to begin with,” Fransen said. “Blakely became extremely frustrated when she was unable to do a particular element. There were a lot of tears and a few tantrums. She wanted to give up just a few minutes into a lesson.”
But Fransen used the distraction method often. Talking about anything and everything other than skating.
“Before you know it, Blakely had done two full circles of half swizzle pumps all while talking about dogs and cookies,” Fransen said. “About one and a half years into lessons, we were working on forward crossovers. Blakey stopped, looked at me, and said, ‘Ya know, if I fall it’s no big deal … I will just get up and try again.’ It was at that point that I knew we had turned the corner.”
Today, Blakely skates private lessons three days a week with Fransen and tries to fit additional ice time during open skates. And lessons with coach Jane, ice shows and competing have now become some of her favorite things.
Indeed, in December of 2024, she participated in her first Compete USA competition, skating to “My Favorite Things.”
“The song made me smile the whole time, because of the upbeat rhythm,” Blakely said. “Winterfest was my first competition, and I was so nervous, but my coach was right there to remind me to have fun. My teachers and my family and close family friends came to cheer me on, and it was so exciting to be able to show them my program and what I have learned on the ice.”
Her favorite skater is Olympic champion Scott Hamilton, “because he is a big supporter of cancer research and brings together ice skaters from all over to support both ice skating and finding a cure for cancer. I like participating in the Scott Cares Foundation Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer events in Fort Wayne every year, and my family participates in these too, with me,” Blakely said.
In the meantime, this now confident and determined little girl is looking forward to her following skating goals, improving her spins and preparing for the next competition.
“Skating makes me feel like I can try new things without being afraid to fall, because you just remember to get back up again and keep trying,” Blakely said.
And Lunin sees a little girl filled with thrive and determination who overcomes obstacles with a smile and believes anything is possible.
“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become,” Lunin said. “This quote is all about Blakely.”
