Good Sports: Sanger West cheerleaders fights through lung issue, gets national recognition

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Since her elementary days, Abby Burges has been cheerleading.

"A lot of people don't think cheer is very hard," she said.

It's a sport the Sanger West senior takes very seriously.

"I'm a backspot," she said. "A backspot is basically someone - there's a flyer in the middle two bases on the side and then someone in the back. I'm the person in the back, and I help push them up."

But during her 5th-grade year, Abby started noticing a problem.

"(She) started having some breathing issues, and it was very confusing," says Abby's mom, Kaycee Dommer.

"I thought it was just anxiety," Abby said. "I didn't know what it was."

To find out, Abby's mom would take her to see a doctor.

"They told me that I could possibly have mold in my lungs," Abby said.

Abby was suffering from Aspergillus niger, an infectious black mold that had built up in her lungs.

"That was really scary for me," she said. "I was confused."

"We started seeing a doctor, getting it under control and making sure she's still able to do the sport that she loves," Kaycee said.

To keep her everyday passion alive, Abby would undergo multiple procedures to scrape and flush out her lungs.

"When I did have to go into the procedure, it was extremely scary for me," she said. "I did not want to do it."

After many worried nights in the hospital and an inhaler on hand, Abby's been able to keep the issue at bay, turning her experience into strength.

"I'm just a lot stronger mentally, knowing that I can push myself to that limit and knowing I've gone past that as a person," she said.

This season is pushing herself to a new limit.

She was named an All-American by the Universal Cheerleaders Association for the first time ever.

"I tried out last year - I didn't get it, so I just worked 10 times harder this year," she said. "I tried to put myself out there, volunteer, use my voice and that got me really far."

She's going even further, joining a group of other All-Americans to perform in Hawaii's 82nd annual Pearl Harbor Parade last December.

She even got a once-in-a-lifetime experience to tour the USS Arizona along the way, with mom right by her side.

"I don't know if I would've believed it," Kaycee said. "We learn, we've dealt with it, we've lived with it now. It's part of our life, it's not anything we can change."

With college on the horizon, Abby is hoping to one day call herself a cheerleader for the Oregon Ducks but isn't ruling out her hometown school.

"If anything, I could cheer for Fresno State or some type of college here in Fresno," she said.

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