Kicking Cancer: Buckeye Freshman Matt Lampson Earns Shutout vs. Lymphoma – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Matt Lampson is in his first season with the Ohio State men’s soccer team. Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in June 2007 as a senior at St. Charles Prep in Columbus, Ohio, Lampson delayed entrance to Northern Illinois until fall 2008 before transferring to Ohio State last winter. Five games into the 2009 season, he earned the starting goalkeeper role before sitting out vs. Northwestern with a minor ankle injury. Last weekend, members of the men’s soccer team honored Matt by participating in the Light the Night walk to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Matt Lampson, a redshirt freshman on the Ohio State men’s soccer team, will tell you with a straight face he has seven tattoos on his chest. Looking at the sandy-haired, fresh-faced 20-year old, the mental image of being inked does not seem to fit. He maintains his position with a slight smile though, until further questioning softens his features and he says,
“If you really want to know, they are marks from radiation therapy. I had cancer.”
Again, it does not seem to fit.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Lampson appears to be the picture of health and for a second you think he is still kidding. The look behind the eyes makes it clear he is in fact telling the truth but his simple and straightforward approach does not give you a chance to be taken aback. He will at this point either gracefully change the subject or offer to answer whatever questions you may have.
All with a smile, an intelligence and confidence that belies his youth.
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Lampson was in his senior year at St. Charles Prep in Columbus when he felt a lump on the left side of his neck. Like some children of doctors, he said he was raised under the notion that unless you felt like you were gravely ill, you kept to yourself. And so, he did not tell his parents – Chris, an anesthesiologist, and Mecy, a nurse -anything was wrong.
The truth would begin to emerge, however, at a school blood drive. Lampson attempted to donate blood, but was told his hemoglobin levels, the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood, were too low. Not trusting the initial diagnosis of anemia, he went for further tests and was told to take antibiotics and he would be fine in a week.
At this point, Chris was concerned and insisted the lymph nodes be biopsied. Shortly thereafter, the Lampson family heard the word that often carries so much dread: cancer. On June 10, 2007, at the age of 17, Lampson was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma Stage 4B.
Stage four is the worst.
“My first thought, the first exact thing that came out of my mouth, was ‘what do I have to do to beat it,'” Lampson said. “Never once in my entire year of fighting this thing was I like, I am going to die. It never came into my mind at all. It was just constantly what am I going to do to get on with my life. This was just a bump in the road.”
By this point, the cancer had spread from his neck to his waist with several mediastinal masses that were practically the size of baseballs. In the span of just a few days, Lampson had surgery to place a port in his chest that the doctors used to administer chemotherapy.
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Lampson goes through his treatment timeline and lists off his drug regime BEACOPP – Bleomycin, Etoposide, Adriamycin, Cyclophosphamide, Oncovin, Procarbazine and Prednisone – with the ease of someone that has not just told his story before, but as someone who truly understands it.
He describes with great detail, like the biology major and aspiring medical school student that he is, the four scheduled rounds of chemotherapy – eight hours the first day, followed by a week off and then two or three hours before two more weeks of rest. There were shots of Neupogen during the process, which stimulates bone marrow to create more white blood cells, the cells the body uses to combat disease.
“[The shots] are incredibly painful – your bones just feel like they are breaking in half,” he said. “I didn’t want to eat and the therapy really just makes you not want to do anything, except I did go out and play soccer probably three or four times a week all during chemotherapy. That’s how much I missed it.”
That is right, he played soccer.
And sure enough, the combination of drugs and soccer did the trick. After the first round of chemo, Lampson said he could feel the lymph nodes literally starting to melt away.
“One day they are one size and the next they have shrunk to half the size, which is awesome. You can just feel it going away. And that keeps you going.”
It took two rounds to zap the cancer that started out as advanced as it gets. On Sept. 24, 2007, Lampson was declared cancer free; effectively earning that date his “second birthday” title – a holiday his older sisters, Mallory and Erin, now annually commemorate with a cake.
Despite the positive prognosis, he still needed to finish out the four rounds of chemotherapy – a feat that seemed far less daunting knowing there was already a positive result. At the conclusion of the scheduled treatment, however, doctors felt an extra two rounds would further shrink the lymph nodes. And so, Lampson underwent a total of six bouts of chemotherapy with minimal improvement beyond the initial two that killed the cancer.
He is still markedly bitter about what he sees as unnecessary course of treatment, but either way, it still boils down to being cancer free. A fact not lost on him.
There were then two months off, followed by two rounds of radiation treatment to control the malignant cells. Because he had spots on his lungs, some of the gamma rays were directed there, effectively taking care of the cells but also damaging the organs in the process.
Other than his aforementioned seven tattoos, from the gamma ray lasers, the diminished lung capacity is one of only two side effects Lampson still has to contend with from his nearly year-long battle with cancer. That, and hair as coarse as “chinchilla fur,” a fact that makes him grow wistful at the memory of his pre-cancer locks.
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There are five self-proclaimed defining moments in Lampson’s fight with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The first three are pretty straight-forward: the day he was diagnosed, his second birthday and the final day of chemotherapy. But then he fast forwards to his first game with the Crew Soccer Academy, a U.S. Soccer developmental league club team in Columbus, and ultimately to his first game in an Ohio State uniform.
Following the radiation treatments, it took six months of working out with a trainer for Lampson to reach a point physically where he could start playing club soccer at a competitive level. He joined the Crew Academy, alongside current teammate David Schade, and helped lead the squad to an appearance in the academy national championship match.
From there, he went off to Northern Illinois in the fall of 2008 – a year after he had signed a NCAA National Letter of Intent to play there. A lot had changed in that year and it quickly became apparent NIU was no longer the right fit for him. In addition to the fact there were still lingering health concerns that left Chris and Mecy, his parents, wishing that he was closer to his hometown of Hilliard, Ohio.
A few phone calls to Ohio State head coach John Bluem and the move became a reality.
“Growing up in Ohio, I have always been a Buckeye fan and playing for Ohio State is huge,” Lampson said. “That really told me where I am in my life and what I am capable of doing. If people realize what they have in life, appreciate it and ask themselves ‘what do I want to accomplish in life,’ they can accomplish anything they want. Because look what I have done. Now, [cancer] is just a minor setback.”
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A minor setback.
Ohio State coaches and student-athletes alike acknowledge Lampson for his hard work and respect his determination, though he is adamant to never “pull the cancer card” with them. The only time he still feels the effects of the radiation is during the occasional workout that stresses his lung capacity, but even then, Lampson keeps on going to the best of his ability.
“Matt is never going to use having cancer as an excuse,” Taly Goode, the Ohio State assistant coach in charge of goalkeepers, said. “He went through something most college kids cannot even fathom and it made him a stronger person and probably, a stronger player.”
The admiration by the rest of the team is subtle, but clear. It comes in the form of a lavender wristband with the word “Lampstrong,” Lampson’s charitable organization that raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, flanked by two commemorative ribbons.
“Most of us wear the Lampstrong bracelet every day, or at least have one at home,” junior midfielder Sam Scales, who also organized the team’s involvement in the Light the Night walk said. “It is one small way we can show our support for Matt and for the importance of raising money and increased understanding of leukemia and lymphoma.”
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And so, Matt Lampson goes on with his daily life.
He trains with the nationally-ranked Buckeyes and looks to regain his starting spot in goal. He also maintains a rigorous class schedule as a biology major with pre-med aspirations (no surprise, he wants to be an oncologist) and uses his spare time to generate awareness for lymphoma and other blood cancers.
And he does all this with his seven lucky “tattoos” as reminders – of where he has been and, more importantly, where he is going.
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by Alissa Clendenen
Assistant Director, Ohio State Athletics Communications
