EDDINGTON, Maine — Blink, and you might miss him.
Camden Bryant is a 5-year-old ball of energy with long waves of blond locks and a Scooby-Doo costume. At his home in Eddington on Halloween, he chased his friend, dressed as Sonic the Hedgehog, in circles, up the playground ladder, down the slide, back up the ladder, through the tunnel, across the yard, into the bounce house.
Looking at the broad smile across his breathless face and gawking at the sheer amount of ground this kid covers, one might never guess the ordeal he’s been through.
Camden was born on Sept. 30, 2010. On June 28, 2012, at 21 months old, he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, the most common type of childhood cancer. Out of the 1,857 days Camden has been on Earth, 1,220 of those days have been spent fighting his disease — undergoing chemotherapy, chewing up pills that he can’t swallow, and stubbornly playing even on days when he might not feel well.
But this Halloween, Camden, his family and friends gathered to celebrate a new milestone in his young life — his last chemotherapy treatment, which he received the day before.
“There’s a lot of mixed emotions, actually,” said Camden’s dad, Dan Bryant, as he watched his son play with his friends on the playground.
On the one hand, Camden no longer needs chemotherapy treatments and can stop taking most of the prescriptions that he’s had to choke down over the past three years. He can start to feel like a normal kid for the first time in his life. On the other hand, the “safety net” of chemotherapy is going away, and there’s a risk, however small, that the cancer might return, said Sheri Bryant, Camden’s mom.
Still, a celebration was in order, so the Bryants organized Saturday’s party. Camden has been on a Scooby-Doo kick lately, and asked that that be the theme of the party.
He dressed up as Scooby-Doo and his sisters, Carmen, 7, and Sienna, 8, dressed up as Velma and Daphne, the cartoon show’s lead female sleuths. Camden shed his Scooby-Doo outfit early on in the party after he got too warm from running around in circles. An area company donated a Scooby-themed inflatable bounce house for the party, which proved popular for Camden, his sisters, and their friends.
Camden will have checkups in the coming years to monitor his condition. The odds are in his favor that there won’t be a resurgence of cancer. According to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, about 90 percent of children treated for ALL can be cured. Patients are considered cured after 10 years in remission.
Sheri and Dan Bryant are still awestruck by their son’s toughness. His first year of cancer treatment, which started before he turned 2, was the most trying.
“That’s when he really got blasted,” as doctors tried to beat the cancer into remission early on, Dan Bryant said. Sheri said she’s thankful that Camden likely won’t remember the worst phase of his treatment because he was too young.
“I don’t want him to have to look back on this,” she said, “but we certainly will.”
The Bryants say they were astounded, with how well Camden handled his treatment.
“If you ask him to do something that needs to be done, he might not like it, but he does it,” Dan Bryant said. Sheri said Camden frequently reminded her when it was time to take his medicine.
Costumed teachers, classmates and supporters turned out by the dozens for the party. One attendee was Jocelyn Boudreau, a 12-year-old who was once a pupil in Sheri Bryant’s kindergarten class in Ellsworth.
After learning of her former teacher’s son’s illness, Boudreau launched one of the first fundraisers for the family — a lemonade stand.
“We are so incredibly grateful for the support and wishes we’ve received from everyone,” Sheri Bryant said.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.