Kaitlyn Cates, a recently recovered Marathon Bombing victim, was a Willowbend giving tennis lessons to members of the Mashpee High School tennis team.
MASHPEE – A 25-year-old victim of the Boston Marathon bombing is back on the tennis court pursuing her passion for teaching the game after a period of rehab that spanned 18 months.
Kaitlyn Cates was at the tennis courts at Willowbend in Mashpee Thursday teaching tennis to students from the Mashpee High tennis team. Cates says she was near the finish line when a bomb went off.
“I lost thirty percent of my right calf at the Boston Marathon. I was near the finish line as a spectator when the first bomb went off. I had two emergency surgeries, one where they tried to close the wound but it wouldn’t close because it was so big,” she said. “So they took a skin graft from the back of my right thigh that they placed over my right calf and closed it.”
Cates also had additional surgeries to deal with her injuries. She was finally cleared to get back on the court last week.
Tennis was her passion before the bombing. She was given a full scholarship to Suffolk University for tennis.
