Hayley Salvatore of the Washington Post tells the amazing story of 14-year-old Madison Smith, who has overcome Stage 3 colorectal and is competing for her high school golf team with dreams of making it to Augusta.
During a trip to Maui in August, Madison started experiencing extreme stomach pain and nausea. While she was initially diagnosed as being infected with E. coli and Salmonella — bacteria consistent with food poisoning — her symptoms persisted after she took medication, prompting her mother to suspect worse. Doctors performed an X-ray, found a stricture — a narrowing of the intestinal tract — and airlifted her to a hospital in Honolulu that was equipped to perform surgery.
When pediatric surgeon Sidney Johnson was finished, he pulled Molly and James Smith out of the recovery room to discuss the results. In the hospital’s chapel, Johnson told them he had removed 23 swollen lymph nodes and a foot of Madison’s colon and that a biopsy came back positive for both celiac disease and cancer. Molly and James were stunned to learn about their otherwise healthy daughter’s diagnosis.
“We had not even been contemplating that because she’s so young and it’s so rare for her age group,” James said. “It just doesn’t happen, so we weren’t prepared for that.”
The cancer afflicts around 100 kids Smith’s age annually, but with the support of her family, school and puppy, she made it through 12 chemo sessions and is back on the course playing high school matches with hopes of making to Augusta via the Drive, Chip and Putt.
