featured teen

jason hamilton

My name is Jason Hamilton. I'm 17 years old and a very active person. I am involved with my school's cross country team and the indoor and outdoor track team. I also participate in drama, which keeps me after school 2 days a week until at least 9 p.m. When I'm not in drama, I'm working as a cook in a restaurant. And when I'm not working, I'm making movies with my friends.

You may be saying, "So what do I care?" Well, I had cancer-melanoma. The only good thing about this is that I told people my scars were from a knife fight and they believed me so it was kind of fun. But to be serious, it wasn't easy to recover from my operation on my back to remove the cancerous tissue.

The recovery period was 3 weeks and I could hardly move my right arm. To make it worse it was during the pre-season to cross country! So naturally, I wanted to get back in action as soon as possible. The thing is-I didn't let it me slow me down. I tried to keep on going but at times it wasn't that easy.

I know now that having people to talk to about dealing with cancer can really help. If Group Loop had been available when I was diagnosed, I would have been there to see what other teenagers were doing to keep their mind off cancer and get back to life. I can't think of a better place to go talk about your experience with cancer and to get support from other teenagers who have gone through tough experiences with this disease.

My advice-don't let this disease keep you from doing what you want to do, don't let it keep you from life!

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