Yaxel Lendeborg's mom cancer diagnosis: How Michigan star's mother battled appendix cancer to support her son

Over Yaxel Lendeborg's NCAA career, he's slowly blossomed into one of the biggest stars in college basketball. 

The 2025-26 season was the culmination of that, with Lendeborg winning Big Ten Player of the Year for the Michigan Wolverines, leading the squad to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament as one of the best teams in the country. 

Just before Michigan's 2026 postseason run began, in February 2026, Lendeborg opened up with a published piece to "The Player's Tribune" titled "How My Mom Saved My Life." In that story, he detailed his relationship with his mother and how she's motivated him — and he also shared details about her ongoing battle with appendix cancer.

Here's what Lendeborg has shared about his mother's cancer diagnosis, and how she's continued supporting him in March Madness.

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Yaxel Lendeborg's mom cancer diagnosis

During his 2025-26 season at Michigan, Lendeborg revealed that his mother, Yissel Raposo, had recently been diagnosed with cancer.

"I've never seen her complain. She's always to give her last piece to somebody else," Lendeborg told Big Ten Network in January 2026. "She wants to come to my games, but I'm telling her not to because she's kind of dealing with a little sickness right now. She got diagnosed with cancer.

The doctors said she's doing good. I'm just trying to make sure she is able to beat it."

Lendeborg's "Player's Tribune" article was later released on Feb. 20, 2026, when Michigan was wrapping up its regular season. In the story, he went in-depth on how his mom helped him get his academic and basketball career on-track when he was younger, calling her his "guardian angel."

Lendeborg has long been open about his strong relationship with his mother — including buying her her dream car in 2025:

On top of highlighting a specific moment with his mom that helped him redirect his focus, Lendeborg wrote about when he received the phone call from his mother when she told him she had been diagnosed with cancer. 

"My heart sank as soon as she said it. And, I hate to admit it, but, if I’m being real, what I thought was … It’s all over. She said she had kept it from me, and didn’t want to say anything, because she knew how important this season was for me, and she didn’t want to mess it up. Didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize my future. It was so sad, man. But it says so much. She finds out she has cancer, and … she’s thinking about me. I broke down crying immediately."

Lendeborg shared in "The Player's Tribune" that because of her appendix cancer treatment, Yissel hadn't been able to make it to as many of his games as she used to, completing her ninth chemotherapy session around the time his story was published.

"She’s the strongest person I’ve ever known. So I know she’s going to be OK," Lendeborg wrote. "I can promise you that I’m going to do the best I can with that — for her. Like I said, everything I do, it’s for her. But in some ways, that’s kind of out of my control. Because I’m gonna feel what I feel. I have no control over that, really."

Later on, with Michigan beginning its NCAA Tournament run in March, Lendeborg told reporters that his mom had been doing "great," per Fox 56 News.

“She has three more sets of chemo left, and then she’s going to be done with that treatment," Lendeborg said. 

Yissel Raposo has still been able to support her son and the Wolverines in-person during the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Cameras have caught her celebrating in the crowd, including in the moments after Lendeborg had a poster dunk vs. Saint Louis in the second round.