Teen beats rare cancer, then opposing soccer team in first game back

And the crowd goes wild!

The euphoric moment a British 13-year-old — in his first game back after recovering from a rare form of cancer — scored a last-minute game-winning goal was captured in a heartwarming video making the rounds online.

The crowd erupts after Harry Jolley, 13, knocks in the game-winner with a smooth left-footed side kick — and saved Lostock Hall Juniors U13s’ season in Preston, Lancashire, video from the May 11 match shows.

He is mobbed in the far corner of the field by his teammates as they rush to congratulate him on the crucial goal.

“I couldn’t believe I scored the goal — to celebrate with my friends was fantastic,” Harry told SWNS last month.

The game was tied 3-3 when the coach shouted Jolley’s name to go in as a substitute for the final five minutes of the game with his parents and older sister Phoebe in the crowd.

“There was no dry eye in sight — it was a perfect moment,” his mother, Lucy Jolley, told the outlet. 

Harry returned to the field on May 11 to take on the same team he played in his last match before being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2024. The diagnosis made him miss most of the season with his football club, SWNS reported.

“Before the game, he was nervous but also excited. He originally asked his coach to play the last 10 minutes but changed his mind as the game was so close and it was an intense game,” Lucy said. 

“I guess he made the right call.”

Long road to recovery

Harry’s jubilant return to the pitch was a long journey filled with hospitals and several rounds of chemotherapy.

Last spring, Lucy, 42, took Harry to see a doctor after he was complaining of pain in his legs and lower back, according to SWNS. 

A doctor gave him a blood test at a walk-in center — and called the next day to urge her to take him from school and rush him to the Manchester Children’s Hospital for more blood tests, the outlet reported.

“When I picked Harry up, in the back of my head I still thought it was nothing serious, but as I later realized, they don’t ask you to travel an hour away urgently if they don’t think something is really wrong,” Lucy said.

Harry would stay there for six months after he was diagnosed with leukemia. 

“Harry didn’t have the classic symptoms — I thought he might have been low in some vitamins or have an iron deficiency,” Lucy said.

Lucy said the heartbreaking moment when she learned about the diagnosis was like something out of a television show.

“Around six consultants came to the door and ask to speak to my husband and I in a different room,” Lucy told SWNS. “We were devastated.”

And then they had to explain to their young son what was going on.

“Harry was very upset, he understood he was very ill — but we didn’t really have the time to let it linger as the same night he had his first blood transfusion,” Lucy told SWNS.

What followed was a flurry of treatment: four rounds of toxic chemotherapy, blood transfusions and a stem cell transplant, according to the outlet.

After that, Harry began the arduous six-month journey of training to be able to participate in the final game of the season — and score that season-saving goal.

“For the remainder of that day, I just replayed the moment over and over,” Harry told SWNS.