Ohio State Athletes’ Partnership with LandOn A Cure Foundation Builds Special Bond, Awareness for Rare Genetic Disorders

By Dan Hope on July 17, 2023 at 8:35 am
Landon McChesney with Ohio State athletes
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The Ohio State women’s basketball team’s partnership with the LandOn A Cure Foundation began with a friendship.

Before last season, Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff invited Landon McChesney and his family to attend one of the Buckeyes’ practices. McChesney, who is unable to walk or talk due to a rare genetic disorder, immediately bonded with Ohio State’s players.

“Right after practice, we spent an hour upstairs with him just talking with him, hanging out, throwing the ball back and forth. And I think he had a huge impact on our girls,” Ohio State guard Jacy Sheldon said. “The connection for us was instant, and he kind of brought light to the room, made everybody happy and made everybody feel really good.”

As a result, McChesney has become a fixture around the Ohio State women’s basketball program over the past year. The 7-year-old and his parents were a constant presence at Ohio State’s games at the Schottenstein Center last season, and the Buckeye players are now an official partner of the foundation McChesney’s parents started to fund research into rare genetic diseases. In December, all of Ohio State’s women’s basketball players signed an NIL deal with Cohesion Foundation to specifically partner with LandOn A Cure and generate awareness for the cause while participating in foundation events.

Seven months later, McChesney’s mother, Jaren, says that the partnership has significantly impacted the foundation and her son. The attention the Buckeyes have brought to Landon’s story has brought more funding to the foundation, but what Jaren says has made the partnership truly special is how the program has embraced Landon, such as when he was honored during one of Ohio State’s home games in January.

“It's been amazing to have Buckeye Nation really rally around Landon,” Jaren McChesney told Eleven Warriors. “After that game, we just brought them little thank you cards that Landon had written, and I got a little choked up and I said, ‘If we raise a dollar, that's great. But this team, all that you've done for him, making him feel seen, loved and heard is worth more than anything.’ And that's all we can ask for.”

It wasn’t just the Ohio State women’s basketball team who helped raise money and awareness for LandOn A Cure on Saturday when Woodland’s Backyard in Grandview hosted the Volley for a Cure volleyball tournament, with all proceeds going to the foundation. Along with Sheldon and other members of the women’s basketball team, athletes from multiple other Ohio State sports were in attendance, including 12 football players: sophomore cornerback Jyaire Brown and freshman wide receivers Brandon Inniss, Noah Rogers and Bryson Rodgers, defensive linemen Jason Moore, Kayden McDonald and Joshua Mickens, linebacker Arvell Reese, cornerbacks Jermaine Mathews Jr. and Calvin Simpson-Hunt and safeties Jayden Bonsu and Cedrick Hawkins.

Those football players, who were also there in partnership with Cohesion Foundation, spent the night interacting with the McChesneys and other Buckeye fans and playing some volleyball themselves, with the team of Inniss, Rogers, Mathews, Brown, Hawkins and McDonald getting the better of Rodgers, Simpson-Hunt, Moore, Mickens, Reese and Bonsu in a head-to-head matchup between the two sides.

The Buckeyes who participated in the event enjoyed putting their volleyball skills to the test and spending time in the community in the process.

“Giving back, it doesn't cost you anything. It's just being out here, just giving a great experience to everyone and the community,” Rogers said. “And, of course, having fun. Who doesn't like having fun? It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio, and playing volleyball is something we just don't do often.”

It meant a lot to the McChesneys, especially Landon, to have the Buckeyes participate in the event.

“I didn't really know what to expect for today. And to see all these athletes come together and have so much fun and all for such a good cause to help not only Landon, but for all kids battling a rare disease, is incredible,” Jaren McChesney said. “The second he saw the women's team, he saw all the athletes, he saw everybody here, he gets excited. He starts to cheer. He's a man of the people. He loves to be a part of the action. So this really motivates him.”

Landon’s specific genetic disorder, a mutation of the TBCD gene, is so rare (less than two dozen children worldwide have been diagnosed with it) that there is no name for the disease and no known cure. But he has already defied the odds, as doctors initially told the McChesneys that he would live no more than two years.

The McChesneys have further hope for Landon’s future thanks to Allison Bradbury, a doctor at Ohio State who is now leading research into the TBCD mutation with hopes of developing gene therapy to treat the disease. Jaren says her hope is that research will help her son and others battling rare genetic disorders.

“Gene therapy would be the ultimate cure for his disorder, and not only for TBCD, but that can springboard to other really rare disorders. So we can not only help Landon and this small population of TBCD kids, but the big picture is to help every kid, and I won't stop until I do that,” Jaren said. “I'm in this for the long haul. I’m gonna help every kid I can.”

Those who want to learn more about the LandOn A Cure Foundation and/or donate to the foundation can do so via the foundation’s official website. Sheldon says she’d encourage everyone to consider giving to the foundation – and to say hello to Landon at an Ohio State game this season.

“I just think Landon in general and Landon and his family are really special people. Really amazing people who love to give back and appreciate everything they get. And everybody should know that,” Sheldon said. “I think everybody should meet them. Especially our fans. They’re at all of our games. So at any time, anybody can stop by and say hi and give him a hug. It would just as much benefit them to do that and brighten their day. They're awesome people.”

Eleven Warriors also spoke with Inniss and Brown during Saturday’s event, and you can hear what both of them had to say in the videos below.

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