When Greggory Kaiser got the principals award at the Wareham high
school honors Assembly last June, he said he was embarrassed. Getting
a standing ovation and having the crowd in the auditorium sing
"Happy Birthday" to him as he stood there on the stage just
added to that embarrassment.
The awards ceremony happened to fall on Kaiser's birthday, June 17,
and Principal Daniel Burke announced the fact.
Kaiser said he knew why he got the award. " Because I'm
great," said the 17 year old. Burke also like him, Kaiser said,
and knew he'd gone through a lot. Kaiser was diagnosed with
neuroblastoma a couple of years ago, in March, 1994. Neuroblastoma is
a cancerous tumor which, according to his mother, Peggy Kaiser, is
usually diagnosed in children about 4 to 6 years old. After treatment
the tumor seem to be gone. But it came back in a couple of different
places later .
In spite of his disease, Kaiser insists on living is likely as
normally as possible. Part of the reason Burke chose him for the
principals award was because of his ability to bounce back and his
determination to miss as little school as possible.
"I scratched my head lot when making this decision," said
Burke, who didn't want to embarrass Kaiser to much. He said when he
presented the award to Kaiser the teen said "I'll get you later."
"He's a real profile in courage," said Burke.
Kaiser missed a lot of school because of treatment and
hospitalization. But whenever possible, he went to school.
His mother said when the tumor was discovered in 1994, Kaiser
received 5 or 6 rounds of chemotherapy. For a while they thought the
cancer was gone. But it came back. "Every cancer is bad, no
matter how curable. It's a deadly disease,"
When he was 14 and he first knew he had cancer, Kaiser said he
"Just didn't think about" "He use to tell us we
overreacted," said his mom.
But Kaiser said he went through stages in his own emotions about the
disease. "Kind of in the middle I really felt bad about it,"
he said. "now it doesn't bother me. I try not to act and feel
like I have it."
Although he gets a lot of support from the Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute where he goes on a weekly basis for treatment, Kaiser said
he likes to deal with it on his own.
He said he decided to just go on like anyone else.
Kaiser gets chemotherapy every Monday and although he gets a little
nauseous afterward, he wants to go out and do something later on in
the day. He continues to work at McDonald's. roller blade and play
video games. He was unable to run spring track this year, but said he
wants to run one more year of track this coming year. Kaiser said he
doesn't flaunt the fact that he has cancer , but if someone asks, he
will tell them, "There are some people who try to be your friend
and there are phony people. I know who my real friends are," he
said. People who pity him don't affect Kaiser.
"I just blow them off," he said.
The teen said for him, having cancer isn't as bad as most people make
it out to be, but he tries to stay out of hospital beds as much as possible.
Get out and live--In spite of weekly chemotherapy treatments for his
cancer, Gregg Kaiser tries to get out and enjoy life like any other
17 year old. Kaiser rollerblades, plays video games and works at McDonald's.
He will be a senior at Wareham High School this year and wants to go on to college and eventually into medicine. He said he wants to go into pediatrics. His prognosis is confusing, said his mother because the doctors don't really know why he's doing so well.
"They feel something good is happening," said Peggy Kaiser. Since Gregg is 10 years older than most children diagnosed with this tumor, and there are no statistics for kids his age, she said doctors are "just amazed" at how well he's doing.
"He does not give up or go down easy, “said his mother, But she said her son downplays how much time he’s spent in the hospital
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