CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Every day, 43 children are diagnosed with cancer. Over two decades ago, Colleen McGrath was one of them.
“I'm a childhood cancer survivor,” McGrath said. “In 1998, I was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. At the time my only experience with cancer was that my mom died of colon cancer 8 months before my diagnosis.”
At only 14 years old, she had just lost her mother to cancer. McGrath said she felt hopeless and wanted to give up.
Her diagnosis was only the 250th pediatric case in the world.
"I did a huge surgery; I did months of chemotherapy. Six months into treatment, I was miserable and asked to pass away," she said. "You're so sick when you're in it. I was a kid. I couldn't see past that at the time. I had never known a cancer survivor."
Her father, her doctor and her nurse made her a deal.
"They said, ‘Let's make a deal,’” Mcgrath recalled. “‘If you try to go to this camp, we'll let you make whatever decision you want to make after that.’”
McGrath found Camp One Step, a free camp for children with cancer and their families. She said it changed her life forever.
“At first, I did not want to do this at all,” she said. “I thought it sounded like a horrible idea. I was so sick — what was I going to do, hang out with kids as sick as me? How is this fun?”
“What I didn't realize when I went was that I was going to see cancer survivors for the first time,” McGrath said. “That was the real life-changing moment for me. The kids here are healthy now. They've learned to adapt and thrive. They'd found their people and their community. It was an empowering part of my life.”
Camp One Step was founded in 1978 as a nonprofit that provides free, year-round camp experiences for kids with cancer.
McGrath said the companionship, confidence, community and joy it brings these kids is key to their healing journey and creates lifelong friendships.
“You can have the greatest treatments in the world, but camp has something different,” she said. “It gives you that heart, that will, that community because you need those things to fight. If you don't have the drive or the hope, the medicine doesn’t necessarily matter. You have to want to do that."
McGrath said the camp made her want to live again and fight her cancer battle.
"It was almost immediately,” she said. “I didn't want to get out of the car and all of a sudden the counselors came up to us. It was: ‘Let's go, we're doing this. We're off to activities.’ It was such a shift. Kids are kind of bubble wrapped when they're sick. Don't get them sick, don't injure themselves, don't get an infection. Then you get plopped in this place where the bubble wrap is removed and you can do everything.”
“Oh wait, ‘I can do things. I can be a kid,’ and it was an option to be happy and enjoy things.” she smiled. “I remember my dad picking me up after a week and saying, ‘I got my little girl back.’”
McGrath went from camper, to volunteer, to, now a full-time employee for the organization.
“I knew these were my people. I never left. After that first summer at camp, I never missed a year. As an adult, I was diagnosed again with cancer, and I lost my dad to colon cancer. Camp has become my second family. I've been here for 23 years now. I was meant to be here. To lose both of my parents and to have cancer twice, we're ok because of camp,” she said.
Camp One Step is the only local organization to offer 10 free, in-person camps, as well as its connected digital programs, which serve pediatric cancer patients, survivors, and their families throughout the year.
“Camp saved my life,” McGrath said. “I didn't want to do chemo anymore. I wanted to die. I went to camp and I, all of the sudden, had hope and happiness. It's life saving and life changing for every child we can reach.”
Camp One Step has over 400 annual volunteers, including medical professionals and has served more than 19,000 campers.
For more information or to donate, log onto camponestep.org
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