Trainer [28]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 16
Joined: 1/26/01
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And I promised to tell you about the connections...
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Feb 27, 2023, 5:35 PM
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...Clemson had to MY getting involved with St. Baldrick's. (yeah, it's long...)
Before 2007, I'd never heard of The St. Baldrick's Foundation. But when the Georgia Tech baseball team announced they were having a St. Baldrick's head-shaving event following a Sunday game vs Jack Leggett's Clemson squad back in 2007, I did my due diligence and learned more about St. Baldrick's (which was still only a few years old as an independent charity foundation) and decided this was a cause I could get behind full-bore. Jill and I had (and still have) two healthy sons and I couldn't imagine going through something so dreadful with one of our boys. So I reached out to some fellow GT fans and we started an online campaign to help the baseball team raise money...and they blew their goal out of the water!
Why did this cause resonate with me? I had remembered the story of a huge Tech fan, Carter Martin, whose life had been taken by cancer just a few years earlier. In January 2003, six year old Carter had been diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma...an aggressive bone cancer...and began 13 rounds of chemotherapy as well as surgery to remove part of one leg. After completion of chemo in December 2003, he had 'clear' scans...but the cancer returned just two months later.
In March 2004, Carter's granddad Jon...who had played for Bobby Dodd on The Flats...arranged for Carter and his brother and parents to get a tour of Bobby Dodd Stadium and meet Carter's favorite jacket - QB Reggie Ball - after workouts and play catch. It was a meeting that changed Ball's perspective on both the game and life.
That Fall, Carter lay in his bed with his Dad by his side giving play-by-play on the TV action as Tech, Reggie, and a highly-touted freshman named Calvin Johnson (who actually became a pretty decent receiver) faced the Clemson Tigers in Death Valley. Carter had just come home from hospice in late August and was given one week to live. He was too weak and in too much pain to sit up and watch, so his Dad gave him play-by-play commentary. After Kyle Browning's long TD run for Clemson with only a few minutes to go putting the Tigers up 2 scores, Carter's Dad said he was going to go ahead and turn it off. But Carter insisted he didn't, declaring, "No Dad, leave it on. Tech is going to win."
We all know how that ended! And Carter got to hear Tech's amazing comeback and Reggie's TD pass to Calvin to win the game! (Sorry, Tigernetters!  )
Carter's dad said later that was the biggest smile Carter'd had in a long time as he drifted off to sleep.
The next day, Carter Martin died at age 7. A Tech football helmet was painted on his casket.
7 years old. That shouldn't happen.
So, after that 2007 baseball team event, I decided I was going to find a St. Baldrick's event the following year and see how much I could help. I also knew thru the message boards that the young son of UGA fans, Michael & Trisha, who lived in my area had just been diagnosed with a recurrence of a brain tumor, medulloblastoma. Chayton had first been diagnosed with a tumor in February of 2006 at the age of three and had undergone seven months of chemotherapy at the AFLAC Cancer Center at Children s Healthcare of Atlanta (Scottish Rite Campus). At that point, he was in full remission and enjoyed playing soccer and attending pre-school. In October of 2007, during a routine MRI, a new tumor was discovered, and again they were faced with a diagnosis of medulloblastoma.
I reached out to Chayton's Dad, Michael, and asked if they would allow me to honor Chayton's battle when I got my head shaved for the first time in March, 2008. He and Trisha graciously agreed, and they all attended the event. It was truly humbling.
After consultation with their neuro-oncologist, Dr. Claire Majewski, Chayton's parents decided to pursue a stem cell transplant at Duke University Medical Center and then proton radiation in Jacksonville Florida.
The transplant was very hard on Chayton, but he handled it with true grace and strength. After only a two-week stay at home, they were off to Jacksonville for proton radiation. In August of 2008, Chayton finally completed his treatment there and returned home.
Now...in 2023...Chayton is 20, cancer-free, a HS graduate and has a job! And, every year, the entire family continues to honor, support, and humble ME by joining me and my Team Spider Monkey teammates for our St. Baldrick's event! And I continue to try to prove myself worthy of their support.
Stories like Chayton's is why I do this...now for 16 years.
But, also, for stories like Carter's.
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