Parents' Perspective

Note:  The following is from Lynn, an inspirational parent, whose son attended Camp Boggy Creek in Florida, the same camp which inspired Betty Campbell to now build "The Center for Courageous Kids" in Kentucky.  

During the darkest period of our lives, an angel came to pick us up driving a golf cart. “Welcome to Camp!”

There are some words that change your life forever, in an instant. “Your son has cancer,” are four of them. Normal dies that day, and you enter a dimension of pain, misery, a desperate fight for life, and an imminent need to define what we mean by life. David endured six surgeries and a year of chemotherapy, during which half of his days and nights were spent in the hospital. No sports, no school, and only the bravest of friends visiting.

In the middle of this year he was asked, “Would you like to go to camp?” CAMP??? CAMP!!! How could that be possible? So we arranged a visit to check the place out---a visit that had to be rescheduled twice due to hospitalizations. When we finally made it there, that golf cart driver drove down the hill to give us the grand tour. It was love at first sight, and David and that driver remain fast friends to this day.  (yes we are! XOXO)

This Medical Camp was beyond expectations or dreams. Lovely cabins with teddy bears on each bed; a swimming pool with wheelchair access, a lake with boats and fish, a stable full of horses and other critters, and---tucked into its midst---a full service medical facility. Kids could be at camp while receiving treatment, dialysis, and transfusions, whatever they needed. Nurses carrying tackle boxes would deliver oral medicines to the kids right at their activities. Oncology physicians and nurses would be right there throughout the camp week.

So thin, bald, depleted David went off to camp. To this day I am amazed that we were able to leave him there and drive away, it was such an act of trust. For one week during that horrendous year, he got to be normal, to be carefree, to have FUN. He could make friends who understood, who faced the same pain and challenges. And LAUGH, oh how they laughed. He came home changed: more confident, more integrated, more free-spirited, and totally in love with Camp.  How do you say thanks for gifts like those?

Life goes on. Treatment goes on. Best friends from camp die and are mourned. But we always know: This Camp changed our lives. “Friends are angels who lift us up when our own wings have forgotten how to fly.” Camp is stuffed with angels. And they are there right when you need them most.

Lynn