Worldwide #CamilleStrong boosts recovery for Dublin woman

Camille Chabot, 22, credits the community with helping her beat cancer not once but twice as she endured the side effects of surgery, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant — and tenaciously pursued her degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“Friends and even classmates from middle school that I hadn’t seen or talked to in ages were messaging me on Facebook,” Chabot said in an email from Paris, where she is completing her French minor at the Sorbonne. “I felt honored that people were taking time out of their busy lives to think about me and wish me luck.”

Chabot, a Dublin resident, was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she was about to begin her sophomore year of college, after a doctor noticed a small lump on her throat during a routine exam.

Doctors were not originally too concerned.

“But they started getting more and more suspicious,” her mother Kerrie Chabot recalled. “They put her on antibiotics and said, ‘Your body is fighting something.'”

The family of five — also including dad Xavier, and younger sisters Juliette and Amelie — traveled to Peru to hike Machu Picchu while awaiting the diagnosis.

“She hiked five days with a backpack with Stage IV cancer,” Camille’s mom said.

Upon their return, treatments began and everyone rallied to support her.

“Castlewood Country Club remembered she did pro bono Irish dancing over the years, and two years ago for St. Patrick’s Day they did a tribute for her,” Kerrie said.

Camille used the services of Pleasanton’s Sandra J. Wing Healing Therapies Foundation and spoke at its fundraising gala in March 2015, a speech available on YouTube. She emotionally ends her tale: “Cancer may have taken my sophomore year of college, my hair and my ability to have children naturally, but this disease has not taken my faith or my strength.”

She and her family have a GoFundMe page to raise money to start the CamilleStrong Foundation to give financial assistance to others in need for fertility treatment and other side effects not covered by insurance due to childhood cancer.

It was after the gala that Camille’s cancer came back bigger and in her chest, Kerrie said, noting this is rare with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“It was extremely scary and discouraging,” she recalled, “especially since they said they’d never seen this happen. They sent Camille to Stanford for a special study.”

This time she received a stem cell transplant. She also committed to return to the medical center every six months for five years for follow-up studies.

“Five years is the magic number,” Kerrie said. “There is a 55% success rate, that she will be OK in five years.”

Friends — and strangers — continued to send support, taking #CamilleStrong scarves and messages around the world.

“They went to all seven continents,” Kerrie said.

President Barack Obama gave her a shout-out from Air Force One. “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, who lives in Pleasanton, made a special video.

And Camille doggedly continued to work toward her college degree.

“She was so organized,” Kerrie said. “We never told her she had to graduate in four years. But I will never forget, one day when we were waiting for test results, when she wasn’t even in remission yet, she texted me, ‘I’ve been doing calculations. I can take 21 units this semester and actually walk with my class.'”

Camille contacted her professors to show up for certain midterms and finals and did what she could online through community colleges. She was in San Luis Obispo for her senior year and took her lab classes and others she had postponed.

“I was motivated to finish with my classmates that I started college with,” Camille said. “I have always enjoyed learning and having something to do during treatment kept me busy. My #CamilleStrong supporters were also very motivating. My mom would always let my community know when I had a big scan or treatment coming up so people would know when to post an awesome picture with my scarf or T-shirt to let me know they were thinking of me.”

She also helped out families in her neighborhood with babysitting and tutoring.

“This gave me things to do during a treatment and also gave me a routine to look forward to,” Camille explained.

She said that she appreciated friends asking how her treatments were going.

“When your friend has cancer, they will always be thinking about their diagnosis or something related to their cancer,” she said. “It’s almost impossible to keep their mind off of it so try not to pretend it isn’t happening in their life.”

Camille is headed back to San Luis Obispo in September to get her teaching credential. These days, she mostly feels grateful and happy that she was able to go back to college and graduate, and able to study in Paris for the last two months.

She and her mother agree that the support of the community has been invaluable.

“Having a positive attitude and a good support system is key during an obstacle like this,” Camille said.