Kevin’s story begins with his unfortunate diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in the fall of 1985. Kevin was an active teenager involved in high school sports, music, and having fun hanging out with his friends.
All of those so called normal things came to an abrupt end during a visit to his family doctor for what he and his family thought were simply symptoms of a common cold. The symptoms that would any other winter go away this time di d not and prompted the doctors to perform a biopsy on some suspected lymph nodes.
As would be the life changing moment, Kevin’s results were positive for malignant cancer of the lymph system, further diagnosed as Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Kevin’s life changed drastically at that point, and he began a regiment of chemotherapy treatments. These treatments consisted of IV push chemo, which in the 80’s was somewhat common practice.
Over the months (6 months to be more exact) the doctors saw positive sign’s in Kevin’s cancerous lymph nodes reducing in size. The doctors were pleased with his results and issued him in remission in the summer of 1986.
It was while having chemo treatment in Lancaster General Hospital that Kevin heard about a camp for children with cancer. This camp was somewhat new and only 4 years into its operation but had a great message of hope and inspiration for Kevin. The camps name was called Camp-Can-Do.
Kevin submitted paperwork to be a counselor at Camp-Can-Do and waited for their response. A letter acknowledging his acceptance
to be a counselor was received and thus the beginning of this story.
Kevin would serve as a counselor with Camp-Can-Do for 2 seasons in 1986 and 1987, and it was there that playing the guitar Kevin at Camp 1986 – Youtube (yes that is Kevin playing the guitar in the video in 1986) and helping the children to feel normal in any way possible lead to this journey.