Genifer Heath is affectionately known as Little EnGen on the roller derby track, and it’s a name she has rightfully earned. Despite adversity, Heath is an overcomer with her no-quit attitude, her grit and determination, her hard work and positivity.
Heath fell in love with the idea of roller derby early on. As a teenager, she remembers watching her cousin take the track and knowing that as soon as she could, she was going to race.
Heath’s eighteenth birthday couldn’t come soon enough.
“As my eighteenth birthday approached, I was consumed by wanting to join roller derby,” Heath said. “The combination of athleticism, strategy and camaraderie captivated me.”
Where it All Began
As planned, when her age matched the requirement to get started, Heath’s roller derby journey began. After completing a year of fresh meat training with the El Paso Roller Derby, Heath was drafted onto their internationally ranked team, and for five seasons, she was living out her dream. While traveling across the United States competing against top-notch opponents, she was finding her groove as a skater.
The momentum stopped as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the sport to a halt, leaving Heath and other derby athletes eager for the sport’s return. Little did Heath know, the pandemic wasn’t the only life-altering thing she was going to face.
She and her husband with their four kids relocated to Abilene in December of 2020 to get closer to family. Shortly after their transition across the state, in 2021, she experienced a day she would never forget.
“I was running my daughter’s horse before her competition at a local rodeo when suddenly my legs went numb,” Heath said. “I found myself falling to the ground, struggling to get up. It was like my body had been shut off.”
According to Heath, the numbness continued for several days, and she began to lose more and more feeling in her legs. Two weeks of hospitalization and numerous neurological tests later, there were still no answers.
“It was devastating,” Heath said. “I went from being an active person to barely able to take a walk with my kids.”
Months went by and symptoms got worse, leaving Heath confined to a wheelchair, feeling helpless and frustrated. Grieving the loss of her active lifestyle, and the thought of never playing derby with her friends, Heath was determined to stay active and maintain some sense of independence. Determined might be an understatement.
Determined To Do Hard Things
She and her husband began a foster journey. Despite having four kids already, they felt they had more love to give. They planned on taking in one child but fell in love with a sibling group of three, so seven kids became their new normal. Heath also decided to begin martial arts. She showed up to her first class with a walker, ready to take on a new challenge and prove to herself that she could still do hard things – even if it meant doing it in a different way.
“I went in thinking I would work with what I had,” Heath said. “I used chairs to learn to kick and a month after I joined, I belt tested for yellow. It’s the hardest thing I have done to this day.”
Despite some victories on the physical front, there were still no answers and eventually Heath sought out further medical assistance. A specialist in Dallas was finally able to diagnose her with metastatic parathyroid cancer, more than a year after the initial symptoms presented themselves. At the point of diagnosis, the cancer had spread to her bones causing hypercalcemia, which explained the sudden onset of numbness and weakness.
“The prognosis was dire, and I was told I would likely need mobility devices for the rest of my life, but I refused to give up,” Heath said.
While she went to her first martial arts lesson prior to her cancer diagnosis, she only missed three weeks of training after her diagnosis due to surgery. She practiced and competed all over the state while undergoing treatment.
“I knew if I stopped, it would be too easy to quit,” Heath said.
So, she persisted and won the state title in sparring most recently.
I Think I Can, I Think I Can
After the win, Heath decided to pause her martial arts training to pursue roller derby once again. While martial arts provided her with a confidence and sense of accomplishment she desperately needed, Heath missed the roller derby community and knew that emotionally, she needed them to remind herself of her purpose and power.
The first time back at the track, she was still undergoing treatment. Going to practice with a PICC line isn’t an everyday occurrence and it wasn’t taken lightly by those in Heath’s corner. She worked very closely with both her doctors and teammates to ensure her safety.
For Heath, the women she competes with surround her with their strength and camaraderie and encourage her every step of the way.
“Even on the days when my health takes a turn for the worse, I know that I have my teammates to lean on,” Heath said.
Those teammates dubbed her Little EnGen because clearly, she never quits and when things get hard, she usually finds a way to push a little more.
In the popular children’s book, “The Little Engine That Could,” the character’s mantra is ‘I think I can, I think I can’. One can only imagine that statement playing on repeat in Genifer Heath’s head.
Pandemic shutting down the world? I think I can. Unexplained symptoms that take away your active lifestyle? I think I can. Fostering three children and eventually adopting them, while raising four already? I think I can. Beginning martial arts while being unable to walk on your own? I think I can. Cancer diagnosis? I think I can. Going back to roller derby while undergoing cancer treatment? I think I can.
Clearly there is no convincing Heath that she can’t.
She is a fighter that recognizes the value of staying involved in her passions even when situations aren’t ideal because she knows the impact it has on her health and well-being.
“While I’m grateful that the surgeries, chemo and radiation treatments ultimately saved my life, it was roller derby that truly let me live again,” Heath said. “I’m thankful to be alive.”
By Nicole Fletcher
Photos By Shayli Anne Photography
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