Camp gives cancer patients, families chance to bond

MOUNT AIRY, Md. - Sherry Jones heard the words no parent wants to hear. Your child has cancer.

"It's devastating," Jones says. "That's the worst news I've ever received in my life."

Jones of Mt. Airy, Md. remembers getting that news. But there was a glimmer of light - the kidney cancer her 6-year-old daughter had was highly treatable. Just days later, the news got worse - there were complications.

Jones' daughter Julia wasn't clear on the details.

"I didn't really understand the full concept of cancer, but I knew it was bad," says Julia.

However, she was clear on one thing.

"If I was going to die, I was going to live while I still had the chance."

Julia became so focused on living she became stubborn.

"I would run around and do things and drive my mom crazy," she says. "I was up and around doing stuff because I was not going to just sit around being sick."

There was surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Sherry says all of it was hard.

"She had long, blonde, curly hair and she lost her hair," she says.

Sherry says it was the start of a series of losses - loss of Julia's health, loss of family time, loss to the family finances.

That's when Sherry was told about Special Love, a non-profit organization that runs camps for families with kids who have cancer in Maryland and Virginia. One camp is dedicated to the siblings of kids with cancer. Sherry sent Julia's brother to that camp.

"She had a room full of stuffed animals, people kept bringing her things, and the attention was all being showered on her, and so, he was left out," Sherry says.

But thanks to the camp, "it was his opportunity to shine. And then he met other children who were going through the same thing. He thought he was the only one. To this day, some of his friends are some of the boys he met at that very first camp."

Julia says she wasn't crazy about the notion of going to camp at first. She knew she would have to take off her hat to go swimming.

"I was like, I don't want to take my hat off," Julia says. "I don't want to be bald around these people. They don't know anything about what I'm going through. I didn't understand that everybody at this camp knows exactly what I'm going through."

Julia says after once being hesitant about going to the camp, she has never stopped.

"I'm a lifer," she says.

Julia is now 20 and considered cured. She is going to school to become a child life specialist in a hospital. She now serves as a counselor at Special Love's "Camp Fantastic." She's incredibly upbeat and quick to joke.

"I have a real appreciation for hair now," she says.

She also realizes how lucky she is. She has friends from camp who didn't make it.

"A lot of times it's tough," Julia says. "You wonder, 'Why this kid? Why did they not survive and I did?'"

She says that is what makes the Special Love community so critical. People know exactly what you're going through.

And she knows it may sound odd, but she says, "If cancer weren't one of the worst things in the world, it could be one of the best things that could happen to you."

She explains that comment by saying cancer gave her a deep appreciation of life; an appreciation she passes on every summer to the other campers at Special Love.

You can help out Special Love by donating or volunteering. To find out more, check out its Web site.

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