Health and Fitness : Kameron Strong: Racing, wrestling communities rally around boy facing cancer

Kameron Roberts passed out trophies at the Independence races, and the driver gave Kameron this trophy. The family of Kameron Roberts is already feeling the support from friends, family and the area racing and wrestling communities, just days after his cancer diagnosis. A Vinton area boy facing cancer and his family are feeling the love and support of the participants and fans of his two favorite sports: Wrestling and racing. Kameronstrong is a new local effort to help Kameron Roberts, the son of Tyler and Tara Roberts and Kara Toms. Kameron, age 7, was recently diagnosed with cancer. "Kameron had a lump about 7 months ago in his neck and they thought he was just fighting an infection," says Tara. "He is a wrestler and after he did a wrestling tournament in Indiana in June it got even bigger so I took him in to have it looked again. Ali LaGrange at the Virginia Gay Hospital Clinic took and look and was concerned so we had X-rays and ultrasound and blood tests done. They sent us to Iowa City to see Dr. Viner and that's when he said Kameron had a clutter of lymph nodes that needed to come out." On July 19, Kameron had surgery; the surgeon told the family he thought the boy had a case of "Cat Scratch Fever" but had tissue samples sent to biopsy. "On Thursday July 20," we got the call that the results came back showing he had cancer and they believe it is Hodgkin's lymphoma," says Tara. "We go Monday July 24th to the U OF I to see doctors and talk about what to expect; then we go back to July 27th for more testing and scans to see how far the cancer has spread and what stage he is in." Although it's just been days since Kameron's diagnosis, already the Kameron Strong Facebook page has more than 1,000 followers, and the family has already begun receiving support from both racing fans and wrestlers. At the races in Independence on Saturday, where there was a tribute to the late Jessica Miller, one of the founders of the Karsyn's Krusaders organization that has raised thousands of dollars to fight cancer, Kameron joined the Miller family in the pace car, and also presented trophies to the drivers. The family has also begun receiving cards and letters from the families they have met, and several people have already begun helping to raise money to help the family pay for Kameron's treatment and related expenses. "We have shirts being made from our wrestling club at Hard Drive, and our racing community is making some shirts as well," says Tara. "We have window stickers already and that is a free will donation. Hard Drive wrestling club is putting together a benefit for our family has well to help us will bills and whatever else we need during this time. There is also a race car that is being made and raffled off and all the money from that is being donated to us as well; that car will have a 'Kameronstrong' paint scheme." Future fund-raising events are also in early planning stages. Stay in touch via the Kameronstrong Facebook Page.