Telegram & Gazette: Another Challenge

By Jennifer Toland, Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Worcester, Mass. —  Mike Smith's blond, curly hair is long now — he frequently pulls his fingers through the front to keep it out of his eyes, and he can twist the back into an elastic at the bottom of his neck.

He hasn't cut it since last December, about two months after he finished treatments for Burkitt's lymphoma, and he doesn't plan on visiting a barber any time soon.

Two days before he began treatment, Smith shaved his head. He beat chemotherapy to the punch, and never let cancer beat him.

“I just looked at it as another challenge,” Smith, co-captain of Clark's swim team, said before Monday's practice at Kneller Pool. “Being sad and depressed wasn't really going to be helpful.”

Smith is back with the Cougars after missing last season and, through Clark's fifth-year program, is working toward his master's degree in public administration. He's incredibly fit and strong, and coach Paul E. Phillips said Smith, whose main events are the 100 and 200 breaststroke, is already on his best times in season just three meets into the 2009-10 schedule.

“I was hoping he could get back to that level by the end of the year,” Phillips said. “You don't get back to the height of physical condition 365 days after chemo unless you're working hard, doing it on your own. With Mike, it was never about ‘woe is me.' He's an impressive kid.”

Smith, who hails from Milford, Conn., was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, in July 2008. He had a sore throat that spring semester and swollen glands and eventually developed a growth the size of a golf ball on the side of his neck.

“July 11,” Smith said without hesitation — that was the day he got his diagnosis. He was back home, working a summer construction job. He was siding the back of a house when his cell phone rang.

“It was my doctor, and he told me he got the results back,” Smith said. “I walked to the front of the house and sat down on the steps.”

On his bike ride home from work that day, a six-mile route along Long Island Sound, Smith stopped at the beach.

“I had the cancer breakdown,” he said. “But after about 20 minutes, a half-hour, I pulled myself together. I realized sitting there feeling sorry for myself wasn't going to do anything productive. I went home to see my parents and from there it was like, ‘All right, what's the next step in the process?' ”

Smith began his intensive treatments a week later, and they continued for the next four months. He underwent six rounds of treatment and was hospitalized four to five days each time. Smith earned his bachelor's degree in government, but he's always been interested in science and did a ton of research on Burkitt's lymphoma and treatments for it. He put his trust in his doctors and nurses, but also wanted to know and understand every step of the process.

“I can remember when he called,” Phillips said. “He said, ‘I have cancer. This is the deal. I'm going for treatment. Everything's going to be fine.' That was his attitude throughout his treatment. The most he ever emoted was, ‘I feel a little crappy.' That was it. You wouldn't even know the severity of what was happening. He was like, ‘Let's just get this over with, and I'm going to move on.' ”

Smith finished his treatments on his 22nd birthday last October. By November, he started working out a little bit. In January, he returned to school.

Swim season was half over by then, and he opted to not use up his last year of eligibility. He did join the Clark crew team last spring and rowed with the varsity in the New England Championships.

Over the summer, on the bike his parents got him for his birthday, he participated in the Pan-Mass Challenge and Connecticut Challenge, cycling events that raise funds for cancer research.

After his initial breakdown on the beach, Smith said he had only one other really bad day.

“One time Coach called me when I was in the hospital,” Smith said, “and I realized so much of my life was here at Clark. Realizing I wasn't going to be there (last fall semester) was kind of tough.”

He is back now and, most importantly, in remission. He goes for checkups every three months and is feeling good. Even though he wasn't competing, Smith came to some meets last year to be around his teammates, and they went to visit him and gave him an Xbox, a pretty cool get-well-soon present.

“Being back with the team is awesome,” Smith said. “I love being back here, and I very much appreciate it. I'm lucky with my course schedule that I definitely have a lot of time I can dedicate to swimming, which is something I want to do. It's like the last hurrah. I still can do it, and I want to do it, and I want to do it as hard as I can.”