Getting Back to 'Normal' & Moving On
- It’s been a month since Cameron Mathison’s mother passed from cancer. Despite this, he’s moving on and finding ways to inspire others.
- The 52-year-old television star is unfortunately all too familiar with cancer. Mathison himself is a kidney cancer survivor, and his mother recently lost her battle with brain cancer. Now, he’s getting back to life after cancer.
- Dealing with the grief of losing a loved one and recovering from that experience is a highly personal process, and everyone goes through it differently.
"About 15 days after my mom lost her battle with brain cancer … I knew it was going to be a tough one for me," Mathison posted to Instagram about emceeing the event. "When Gateway heard of my mom's passing they told me they would understand if I needed to cancel, but I knew I had to be here for this. For my mom, for my own cancer journey, and for the millions of others affected by this horrible, relentless disease."
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The event raised more than $4 million for cancer research, something Mathison says he's "so grateful" to have been a part of.
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Cameron Mathison's Cancer Journey
The 52-year-old television star is unfortunately all too familiar with cancer. Mathison himself is a kidney cancer survivor, and his mother recently lost her battle with brain cancer. Even Mathison's wife's father passed from cancer; he had multiple myeloma.
In 2019, Mathison was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. Doctors found his tumor after he self-requested an MRI because he had been dealing with fatigue and stomach issues for years. He then had the tumor removed and doctors did not find any indication his cancer had spread, which meant he didn't need chemotherapy or radiation treatments.
More recently, he got an "all clear" on his cancer check-ups and told SurvivorNet he wanted to spend "every second" with his 79-year-old mother, Loretta, who had been battling brain cancer since January 2020. She underwent radiation and chemotherapy for almost two years all throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. She'd also had multiple surgeries that took a huge toll on her brain.
"She's had it really, really tough," Mathison told SurvivorNet at the time. "A lot tougher than my journey. It's hard because when it's brain cancer, obviously they have to take parts of the brain out. You lose a lot when that happens." She passed in October after a hard-fought battle with the disease.
But despite all of his family's hardships with cancer, Cameron Mathison says he was striving to "make life meaningful now" by benefiting others, spreading joy and kindness, volunteering and being there for others, just as he did Saturday night for the 30th annual Gateway for Cancer Research Gala.
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"I don't want to get too metaphysical, but to work on things in your life you can bring with you after you die," he says of his goals. "These things are what, for me, makes life meaningful with your family, your friends. I try to do it even with strangers and people that have different views than me. The more we can feel close together and connected and benefit each other, it's what life is all about from my perspective."
Getting Back to 'Normal' & Moving On
Cameron Mathison emceeing this important event signaled an important moment for him: getting back to normal after losing his mother, and even his own cancer battle. But what does that really mean? We've all been trying to get "back to normal" since March 2020 when the Covid pandemic began.
For cancer survivors, like Mathison, once they hear those magic words "no evidence of disease" getting back to normal can be difficult. And we're not sure what it means, considering "normal" is different for everyone.
One thing we know for certain is that things are going to change after you've had cancer that's part of the process. But it doesn't have to be a bad thing.
Follow That Fire: Life After Cancer Will be Different, That Doesn't Have to be a Bad Thing
After CC Webster was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at 29 years old, she was struck by the overwhelming anxiety she started to feel.
"In life after cancer, I experienced an entirely new level of anxiety that I didn't know existed," Webster tells SurvivorNet. "Earth-shattering anxiety that makes you sweat, and makes your heart race. I had to learn how to manage myself in that, and how to allow myself to process the trauma that I had just been through."
Webster says what finally got her back on her feet was facing her anxiety head-on. Eventually, she was able to walk away from her cancer journey with a new outlook on life.
Recovering after losing a loved one to cancer, especially a parent, isn't a "one-and-done" process, many members of the SurvivorNet community have told us. Dealing with the grief of losing a loved one and recovering from that experience is a highly personal process, and everyone goes through it differently.
Camila Legaspi, during a previous interview with SurvivorNet, shared her own advice on grief after her mother died of breast cancer. For her, therapy made all the difference. This isn't something Cameron Mathison has said helped him heal after his mother’s death, but it could be the right option for you.
"Therapy saved my life," Legaspi says. "I was dealing with some really intense anxiety and depression at that point. It just changed my life. Because I was so drained by all the negativity that was going on, going to a therapist helped me realize that there was still so much out there for me, that I still had my family, that I still had my siblings."
'Therapy Saved My Life': After Losing a Loved One, Don't be Afraid to Ask for Help
Rather than dwell on the negative of his double-cancer whammy, the actor is striving to "make life meaningful now."
That doesn't mean, he emphasizes, "just to work harder and make more money," but rather to do things that will "benefit others to help spread joy and kindness in the world; to volunteer; to be there for others. I don't want to get too metaphysical but to work on things in your life you can bring with you after you die."
"These things are what for me makes life meaningful with your family, your friends. I try to do it even with strangers and people that have different views than me. The more we can feel close together and connected and benefit each other, it's what life is all about from my perspective."
Contributing: Abby Seaberg
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