• 2/1/2006
  • Kerrville, TX
  • Amy Armstrong
  • Kerrville Daily Times (dailytimes.com)

Twenty-two-year-old Kristen Morton of San Angelo knows a thing or two about not only surviving, but also thriving when faced with adversity.

The senior at Schreiner University in Kerrville, and 2002 graduate of San Angelo Central High School, is leaving a giant legacy at this small private school, its Kerrville community and on hundreds of people who are battling cancer.

While creating decorations for a Mini Relay for Life to be held on the Schreiner campus Thursday, she calmly discusses her own battle with cancer.

Morton, a San Angelo native, was only weeks from her 17th birthday when she was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma — a cancer so rare that her doctor informed her there were only 18 cases of adolescents getting this form of cancer since 1980.

“He told me it is normally seen only in adults who smoke,” said Morton, a senior at Schreiner.

Cancer was the last thing on Morton’s mind as she began her junior year at Central.

A gifted student, who excelled academically as well as athletically on Central’s tennis team, Morton had noticed a bump on her tongue that wouldn’t go away.

“I went for the biopsy and not too long after that my dad showed up at school one day and pulled me out of class,” Morton said.

“He said ‘You have cancer and you have to start treatment right away,’” she said. “After that everything happened really fast.”

Morton underwent three different surgical procedures, including having all of her wisdom teeth removed — because the radiation treatments necessary to fight the cancer would make it impossible to have them removed later.

“I only felt sorry for myself for about five minutes when the doctor told me I might lose the ability to speak after the surgery,” Morton said. “Then I realized that with the current technology, I would still be able to communicate with my family and friends, so I got over it.”

Harder to overcome was the separation from her father, Dr. Robert Morton, and older sister while under going the radiation treatments at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.

“My mom (Louisa Morton) and I moved to Fort Worth for the treatments,” she said. “My dad would visit every weekend, but it was hard to be away from home and my friends,”

She endured three grueling months of radiation treatment.

“I had a feeding tube in my stomach because it was too painful to eat,” she said.

But the treatments paid off. Morton’s cancer went into remission and she recently celebrated her fifth cancer-free year.

Unfortunately, struggles for the Morton family were not at an end.

“Two months after I went into remission, my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer,” Morton said.

He successfully battled the cancer and now is in remission. As if that weren’t enough of a blow, a year to the day Morton was diagnosed, her parents sat her down for another family talk.

“I said, ‘What, now does mom have cancer?’ and they said ‘As a matter of fact, she does,’” Morton said.

Fortunately, Morton’s mother successfully battled melanoma, but the illnesses took their toll.

“It was much harder for me to see my parents sick in the hospital than it was for me to be sick,” Morton said.

With every one well at last, Morton set off for Schreiner with a scholarship from the San Angelo chapter of the American Cancer Society given to childhood cancer survivors.

“The first time I came here (Schreiner) for a campus tour, I immediately got a feeling of acceptance,” Morton said. “Everyone here truly cares. This school is a family.”

Morton, a biology major, has in her words “blossomed” at Schreiner.

“I didn’t know I could be a leader until I came here,” she said.

Morton, a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, the Honor’s Program, the tennis team, science club and many others has maintained at 4.0 GPA during her four years at Schreiner.

More importantly than that, at least to Morton, is the fact that she has inspired her fellow students to support the American Cancer Society Relay for Life.

In 2002, Morton participated in her first Relay for Life in her hometown of San Angelo, a year later she organized a team of Schreiner students to take part in Kerrville’s first Relay for Life. The team raised more than $3,000.

“I realized through my experience with cancer that you don’t have to be a certain age to make a difference,” Morton said. “I realized I can make a difference right now. I don’t have to wait.”

Morton and her fellow Schreiner students have gone on to raise more than $15,000.

But Morton didn’t stop with the relay team. She also formed a chapter of Colleges Against Cancer at Schreiner in 2005. The chapter won a national award for its work last fall.

Morton organized the Mini Relay for Life to be held on the Schreiner campus Thursday.

“The big relay is the day seniors have to move off campus so I know a lot of people, including me, would not be able to participate,” Morton said.

In the end, Morton, who plans to attend graduate school after taking a year off, feels that the legacy she leaves behind is one of hope.

“I wanted to do something to help others, the way I was helped when I was battling cancer,” Morton said. “Hopefully all of this will continue even after I leave here. It makes me happy to know that.”