After Lung Cancer Surgery, Former Nurse Takes Gold in Pickleball at the Michigan Senior Olympics

At 69, Jill Riddell had every reason to believe she was entering a healthy new chapter of her life.

A retired ICU and Rapid Response Team nurse, Jill had spent her career caring for some of the sickest patients in the hospital. After retiring on her 65th birthday, December 31, 2020, she had two goals: stay out of the hospital and spend her remaining years staying active and healthy.

She never expected that a routine physical—and a chest X-ray she specifically requested because of her family history—would uncover lung cancer.

Today, after successful surgery at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, Jill is cancer-free and back doing what she loves most: living an active life. Just six months after surgery, she was standing on a pickleball court at the Michigan Senior Olympics, winning three gold medals.

A career built around helping others

Jill’s professional life has always been active and centered on helping people.

She began her career as one of the first women telephone installers at Michigan Bell, a job that allowed her to work outdoors and ultimately led to something even more important.

“It was a great job professionally and personally since I met my husband there, who I’ve been married to for 42 years,” she says.

As a mother of two and grandmother of four, Jill later decided she wanted to return to school. She earned a degree in exercise science, helping people improve their fitness.

But Jill realized she wanted to do even more to help others.

“I realized that others needed my help, so I became an RN at 42 years of age.”

She went on to spend most of her nursing career as an ICU and Rapid Response Team nurse, caring for critically ill patients.

When she retired in 2020, she carried those experiences with her.

“I retired during COVID, but that’s not why I retired then. After what I had seen in my nursing career, I had two goals. I did not want to be admitted to a hospital, and I also wanted to live the rest of my life being active and enjoying as many healthy years as possible.”

Retirement brings travel, hiking and pickleball

Jill embraced retirement exactly as she had planned.

Living in White Lake, Michigan, she spent her time traveling, hiking and playing competitive pickleball—a sport that quickly became an important part of her life.

“It’s not only great physically but mentally. When we play, we lift each other up and talk about good things in life.”

But Jill also knew she had a significant family history of lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of non-small cell lung cancer.

Her sister was diagnosed at just 39 and died at 40. Another sister was diagnosed at 68 and has been living with stage 3 lung cancer for five years.

So, as Jill approached 70, she decided to be proactive.

A routine request reveals an unexpected diagnosis

Despite feeling healthy and having no warning signs or symptoms, Jill asked her primary care physician, Dr. Jesse Zrull, for a chest X-ray during her physical.

“As I approached 70, I wanted the next decade without any health worries, so despite feeling healthy, I requested a chest X-ray during my physical with my primary care physician. Sure enough, it showed a spot on my right lobe.”

Additional testing, including a PET scan and biopsy, confirmed what Jill feared: the spot appeared to be lung adenocarcinoma.

But there was also encouraging news.

“It seemed to be small at just 1 cm and confined to just the right lobe of my lung.”

For Jill, early detection meant it was time to act.

Putting her nursing experience to work

The biopsy itself led to temporary complications that affected Jill’s ability to eat. As she recovered, she began searching for the right surgeon to remove the tumor.

Jill approached the decision the same way she had approached so many decisions in her nursing career: she asked questions.

She sought several surgical opinions and wanted to know how many similar procedures each surgeon had performed. She also asked whether a pathologist would be on site during surgery to perform a frozen-section analysis.

That experience would allow the surgical team to evaluate tissue during the procedure and potentially avoid the need for a separate biopsy surgery.

After meeting Dr. Miguel Alvelo-Rivera, Jill knew she had found the right surgeon.

“I was sold that Dr. Rivera he was the right surgeon for me. He was not only an experienced surgeon but was thorough in his questions and provided me with many treatment options that gave me the confidence with the treatment team in place at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital.”

Dr. Alvelo-Rivera performed the successful surgery to remove the tumor in February 2026. He emphasizes early detection is key in the diagnosis, treatment requirement and prognosis of lung cancer. “Henry Ford Health encourages all patients who meet the criteria to enroll into the lung cancer screening program to detect the disease early. An early diagnosis is associated with a high probability of long-term survival and increase chances of qualifying for minimally invasive procedures that can translate into a rapid transition to a fully active, normal lifestyle.”

For Jill, her surgical procedure marked the beginning of a new chapter—one that would soon take her back to the pickleball court.

Recovery was tough—but Jill kept moving

Jill admits the first part of her recovery was not easy.

“The first two weeks were tough. I had a hard time sleeping and felt pain, but I was out of the hospital after just one day and started walking the day after the procedure and never stopped.

Her determination to stay active paid off.

Just four weeks after lung cancer surgery, Jill was back on the pickleball court.

From lung cancer surgery to pickleball champion

Six months after surgery, Jill competed in three pickleball events at the Senior Olympics in Warren, Michigan.

She won gold in all three events.

For Jill, the medals represented far more than athletic achievement. They were a reminder of how quickly life can change—and how much is still possible after a cancer diagnosis.

“It was very gratifying to compete and win after such a scary time in my life.”

As a former nurse, Jill also came away from her experience with a deep appreciation for the care she received.

“I was so impressed with Dr. Rivera and the overall care at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital. It is truly top notch.”

Cancer is one chapter—not the whole story

Jill knows firsthand how frightening a cancer diagnosis can be. She also knows that a diagnosis does not have to determine what comes next.

Drawing on her own experience as both a nurse and a cancer patient, she encourages others to continue pursuing the life they want.

“There are so many of us now who are checking the history box of cancer on patient forms, but we can still participate in a full life. It’s important to reflect that cancer does not have to define you. It’s just one chapter of many to your life story, and it doesn’t have to be the last one.”

For Jill, that next chapter includes family, travel, hiking, pickleball and, most importantly, the opportunity to keep doing what she set out to do when she retired: living an active life and enjoying as many healthy years as possible.

Learn More About Lung Cancer

For further information on lung cancer diagnosis and treatment, visit the Henry Ford Lung Cancer Program.