1^st Commentary Article

   When a patient is diagnosed with cancer it doesn’t just have a effect on that one person but it has some if not an equal amount of devastation to the people around the patient. I have personal experience with the brutal long lasting aftermath of cancer considering both my parents were diagnosed with cancer when I was younger.

   I was only a baby when my mom got news that she had a type of Breast Cancer that could only be treated by radiation. This news came right after my aunts battle with the same type of cancer. This means my mom not only had to deal with a new born baby and a three year old but also deal with a life threatening disease. As time went on my mom pushed herself everyday till she went from a cancer warrior to a cancer survivor. Even though I was only a baby me and my brother both had to grow up with our mother going in and out of the hospital daily. Not having my parents around all the time as a child taught me how to grow up fast and become more independent and responsible at a young age.

     Four years ago when I was in 5^th grade and my older brother was in 8^th grade we got the painful news that our dad who was there by our moms side when she was going through cancer had been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. There is no words to ever explain the type of pain that I felt at that moment after finding out that I might loses my best friend. I don’t think that any child should find out what the word cancer means at that young age. The feeling of helplessness overwhelmed me during my dad’s first chemotherapy treatment because I had to sit there everyday and see my dad so thin and his skin so yellow with sickness yet no matter how much I wanted to take his place and take his pain away I knew I couldn’t do anything.

   Ever since my dads first chemotherapy my brother and I have been going to a camp called Camp Kesem but this isn't just any type of camp, its a camp for children who parents have cancer. This camp was put on by a group of University of Texas students and it was for one week of summer away from our parents. My brother and I went to the camp when it first started. When we left for camp my dad was right in the middle of his first chemotherapy treatment which made me a little skeptical on leaving my parents but I did any way. To say the less this camp impacted my family life so much and made me realize I wasn't alone. 
     Before the camp I though that no one knew what I was going through but through this camp I was able to meet people who have been what I was going through and I met some of my best friends there. This was the first place where I saw my brother be open and smile without forcing it. I cry thinking back on how much I saw my brother be happy and I couldn't thank Camp Kesem enough for that. Camp Kesem gave me a place where I could be a kid again without worrying about the real world and cancer. I am so grateful for this camp because whenever someones parent gets diagnosed with cancer nobody realizes that it leaves such a impact on the child to and this camp shows the children that they have someone there for them to and that they aren't alone. What started as a camp with around 20 campers has grown to a camp that had over 100 campers the summer of 2015 and I'm proud to say my brother and I have attended every year of it. 
    Although one can never go back and change the effects and scars my family has experience with our journey with cancer I have the ability to reach out to other children and tell them that there not alone and that someone does care for them. Cancer is something that my family will always be battling but I have a support group behind me. I have met so many wonderful people to prove my point that cancer effects more than the patient and theses effects change us wether we like it or not but if it wasn't for cancer I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't have known what it feels like to have a family outside my house and I defiantly wouldn't know what it feels like to impact others lives.