All this for a shy kid who really didn't want attention, who was most comfortable being at home with his family.
During his time at Children's Hospital, he was surrounded by his family, which includes four sisters and two brothers. His oldest sister missed 17 days of school to be with C.J.
"He was in a lot of pain," Gloria said. "That was hard for everybody."
C.J. went back for 5 years to get checked. There has been no recurrence.
"I just remember missing school a lot, being home a lot," C.J. said. "I just kept throwing up. My mom took me to the hospital and that's when I found out. After the surgery, I've been good ever since."
A few years after the cancer scare, Gloria decided her son needed to get off the couch. A family friend suggested basketball because C.J. was so much taller than his peers.
"Because he was taller, everybody assumed he could play really well, but he couldn't," Gloria said. "He was very slow. The team would be down at one end of the court and C.J. would just be making it down there to join his teammates. He hated it."
His mother insisted he not give it up.
"I told him, 'You're going to play,' " she remembered.
Fast forward a decade and 6-9 Saint Joseph's sophomore Charles Justin Aiken is the nation's leading shot blocker. Aiken, who turned 21 on Sept. 27 (he stayed back a year in school while recovering from the cancer), has 155 blocked shots in just 43 college games. He also is averaging 11.3 points and 5.4 rebounds a game.
He is one of those quick dunkers who finish plays before most opponents realize the plays have started. There is no alley-oop pass too high. He can make shots out to the three-point line. He is far from a finished product, but even farther from that 10-year-old learning and not really liking the game.
