Cancer-fighting 14-year-old living each day like it’s the last with army at his back

Battling cancer can take every ounce of your body and soul. It can suck the life out of your family too. There are some days you just can’t get through without the love and support of others, even strangers. In some cases, those days can be so bad it takes an army to hold you together.

Colton Matter desperately wants to be a normal kid. He doesn’t want to the be known as the 14-year-old freshman at Mill Creek’s Jackson High School who’s fighting cancer. Colton just wants to play baseball and be a kid.

Those are the same modest dreams he’s wanted since he was nine, when he was first diagnosed with leukemia after taking a spill on his scooter. His mother Suzy remembers that first night in the hospital after her son’s first chemotherapy session, the night Colton’s Army was born.

“It started with a crazy mom who couldn’t sleep at night, laying in a hospital bed with her 9-year-old son imagining what our future held, and I knew that I couldn’t do it by myself,” said Suzy Matter.

Colton needs a prayer army, Matter thought to herself. Everyone and anyone who could send positive thoughts his way.

But his army needed to be especially big and especially strong. Just as Colton has approached remission each year, the cancer has returned. It has come back five times in five years. He’s had two bone marrow transplants, a stem-cell transplant and participated in a clinical trial in Philadelphia. Each had promise, just enough, to allow the family to think ‘maybe this time.’

“Sadly, for five years, I’ve tried to imagine the worst day of my life and it’s a day no parent ever wants to think about,” Suzy said, holding back tears.

“It brings people who have healthy kids to tears and so to know that my child is not healthy and that the worst day of my life could come, motivates me to keep living,” Suzy said.

Living with intention, to make every day matter, just like their last name. ‘Making it Matter’ is now the family motto.

Suzy draws strength by watching Colton battle, in his quiet and confident way.

“He gets up with a smile on his face. He doesn’t complain about going to school. He loves his dog. He wants to get another. He can’t wait to go to college. You know, ‘Why should I worry that we aren’t going to win this?’ That’s how we get through.”

But make no mistake, there is anger. Cancer seems to have piled on the Matters. Colton’s dad, Butch, and his younger brother, Case, take out their frustration at the batting cages and the diamond, along with Colton, hitting cancer with each swing.

Suzy has turned her anger into fundraising for cancer research and treatment, relying on the strength of Colton’s Army, which is now more than 2,500 strong on
Facebook. The army has raised about $200,000 for research, including more than $100,000 alone for last year’s Big Climb for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Colton’s Army will take over Alan Acres Christmas Tree Farm in Stanwood for the next two weekends. The farm wasn’t going to open this year, but it’s allowing the family to sell its trees and raise money for Colton’s sizable medical expenses, which could include another clinical trial in Maryland.

The Matters don’t know what the future holds. They live each day as if it’s their last and they know they have an army at their back.