The family of Paul Barton and friends of the family gathered at center court during a ceremony at the 8th Carol Vick Memorial game February 7 at C-S Jr./Sr. High School.
(Photo by Bruce Rolfe)
Support means a lot to families going through cancer challenges
By Bruce Rolfe
Support from family, friends, and the community can be powerful when a family is going through a cancer challenge.
Since the Carol Vick Memorial game was started eight years ago at Climax-Scotts High School, the type of cancer each individual faced may have been different. However the same feeling of being deeply moved by families impacted by cancer for the support they received during those challenges has been consistent.
That same message of being thankful for so much support was expressed by the family of Paul Barton, who is currently going through cancer treatments and was recognized at the 8th Carol Vick Memorial game February 7 at C-S Jr./Sr. High School.
A portion of the money raised from the Carol Vick Memorial game goes towards assisting Paul and his family for medical bills and other expenses during treatments. A portion of the money is also used to fund the Yerby Vick Perseverance Scholarship.
Money is raised through a sponsorship program, t-shirt and apparel sales, and donations.
The event raised approximately $6,500.
The 2024 Yerby Vick Perseverance Scholarship winners, Tyler Smith from Climax-Scotts, and Caleb Thaxton from Colon, were recognized during the girls varsity basketball game last Friday, however Thaxton was unable to attend.
Because Paul was home still recovering from an earlier surgery and avoiding exposure to sickness is important in his recovery, he was not able to attend the ceremony, however the C-S School District streamed the event live so he could watch at home.
Paul’s wife Leslie said the entire family is very thankful for all the support they have received during this challenging time.
“We are just so blessed to live in the community that we live in, and have all the support. It’s amazing to see all the friends and family that came out and have donated, bought shirts, reached out, brought food and just sent well wishes. We have such gratitude for everyone,” said Leslie, who said Paul wanted to attend the ceremony and game badly.
Leslie said her husband’s treatment schedule is currently going as planned, however “we still have a long road ahead of us.”
“He still has more surgeries to come, more cancer in his body that we still have to fight. So it’s a long road, but we have faith and we will do this,” said Leslie.
Leslie, a C-S High School graduate, said support from family, friends and the community plays a big role helping the family get through each process in the journey fighting cancer.
“Just relying on the support from friends and family and literally taking it one day at a time,” she said.
The Carol Vick Memorial game is named after former C-S girls varsity basketball coach and current C-S High School teacher Josh Vick’s mother, who was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer in 1995 when Josh was 15 years old. She died six years later after she was told she would live six months.
Vick remembers how important that support system was for his family and what it meant.
“I think the support network that my mother had, is one of the reasons why she was able to survive for so long. They gave her six months in the original diagnosis and she made it for another six years. She had friends in the community, friends through her work, and you wouldn’t believe it, but cancer survivors from all over the country that would reach out to her. And they just made her feel like I can do this,” remembered Vick.
In September of 2023, Barton was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He began radiation therapy shortly after in October 2023. In January, 2024, he began chemotherapy that lasted until April. Although he had a surgery scheduled with Bronson, he decided to get a second opinion with the University of Michigan. Paul and his family learned that the cancer had spread to his liver and lungs, which completely changed his plan moving forward. They elected to postpone his surgery and continue his treatment with the University of Michigan which started him on a new round of chemo - this one more suitable for his cancer and much more aggressive too.
In September, before starting his second stint of chemotherapy, Paul had surgery to remove two nodules from his right lung. After the surgery, Paul began receiving the new chemo treatments, which lasted until December, 2024. Despite these treatments, Paul felt worse than before. On January 14, Paul had surgery again, this time to remove a tumor from his rectum. The surgery lasted 9 hours. Paul was in the hospital for 12 days recovering. Now that he is home, Paul will need the next 6 weeks to recover before he will receive more chemotherapy as well as additional surgery on his liver and lungs.
When the event started eight years ago, C-S and Colon teamed up to host a Carol Vick Memorial game in Colon and one at C-S, raising money to benefit families within the two communities who have been impacted by cancer.
While it has been a few years since Colon has hosted its own memorial game, event organizer Josh Vick said C-S enjoys Colon’s partnership in the game played at C-S.
The two teams gathered at center court for a picture before the boys varsity basketball game.
Later at halftime of the boys game, a ceremony was held. The family and friends of the family who stood at center court while C-S teacher Kevin Langs read Paul’s journey with cancer, received a standing ovation from both C-S and Colon fans after the ceremony.
While the two schools battled hard against each other in both the girls and boys games, the teams and the two communities came together as one to support Paul last Friday.
Vick, who teamed up with Langs to form the event, said is was heart warming to see the response last Friday.
He said the event drew more sponsors and there were more shirt sales then ever before.
“Paul has so many friends and family that have reached out. It’s really apparent that he’s very well loved. You can see there was a ton of people that wanted to be out there with his friends, from his work, family members. I’ve heard people sending emails and just so many people have reached out to me, to want to be a part of this. You can tell that he’s just beloved in our community and just beloved everywhere that people know him. It’s been wonderful to see the support that people have had for him,” said Vick.
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