Friday's Internet Edition, July 30, 2010.
Cameron Smith’s focus
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| Cameron Smith, above, at the Brookwood pool where he has excelled as a swimmer since his early years. |
The Clemmons Courier - He is an honor student. A dedicated swimmer. And a cancer fighter.
Camden Smith, 18, will accept his diploma from West Forsyth High principal Kurt Telford on the evening of June 6 having done more than simply conquered the list of academic requirements necessary for graduation. That morning, he is scheduled to take his last round of cancer treatments.
For the past year, Cam Smith has struggled with an advanced and frightening form of melanoma.
There was this place on his back …
“I was just looking in the mirror, and a mole felt too big. I felt like it had grown and that something was not right about it,” he said. “I had it checked out, and they said it was nothing.”
But it became something.
“A year later, they said it had to be removed and checked out,” Smith said. “Nobody wanted to call it (cancer) because I was so young, and it was so unusual.”
A test of his lymph nodes eventually confirmed the worst suspicion.
“One of them was positive,” he said. “That’s when it really sank in. I was very scared. I still am some. We were kind of playing around with the diagnosis, that was really rough. No one really wanted to talk about it. It was hard, but my family helped a lot to get through it. And God helped. And my teachers helped. They cut me some slack.”
He didn’t let them cut him much slack.
Telford said the battle with cancer hasn’t altered Cam’s cheerful personality.
“If you didn’t know about what he’s dealing with, you would never guess,” the principal said. “He’s the same kid he was before; he’s just undergoing treatment. As a swimmer, he hasn’t been as strong, but there’s an explanation. He’s humble. He’s going to do whatever he needs to do for the team.”