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Bryce Yelverton credits Jesus Christ for running with him every step of his journey to beat cancer.
A 28-year-old Mississippi College graduate, Bryce endured four rounds of chemotherapy and was pronounced in remission in May 2014. He also went through two months of daily radiation therapy.
“Cancer fought my body and my spirit, but God allowed me to win the fight of both,” says Yelverton, a Clinton High math teacher. “And when I lived I proclaim that it is not because I am strong, but because He is strong in me.”
The 2008 MC alumnus remains pretty familiar with the deadly disease. About 15 years ago, his father, Joel Yelverton, 58, was diagnosed with Stage 2B Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. His dad was treated and is a cancer survivor today, just like his son.
To celebrate the way they conquered the disease, the Yelvertons competed in a half marathon at Walt Disney World in early January 2015. They joined 502 other Leukemia and Lymphoma Society runners at the resort near Orlando, Florida and made the event part of the worldwide effort to defeat cancer. The squad of eight runners known as Team Yelverteers raised over $36,000 for LLS to help battle the disease.
Still, there’s much more to do.
In the USA in 2014, there were more than 1.6 million new cancer cases diagnosed, and 585,720 deaths reported, according to the American Cancer Society. It remains the nation’s second leading cause of death or one out of every four people. Breast cancer is the 2nd most common diagnosed cancer.
Despite many medical advances, cancer remains a killer that impacts so many families, whether rich or poor, and of all ethnic and age groups.
But Bryce Yelverton focuses on the bright side. “Cancer indeed is not a death sentence anymore and the more work that is done in research and development, the better our chances are.”
In his blog, Bryce talks of the progress of his ordeal beginning with the time when doctors told him he had the same cancer as his father.
“During my treatments, I had the mass support from my old Mississippi College friends, my students, my family and my church,” writes the longtime member of Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson. “I received chemo on my birthday last year and my students (at Clinton High) threw me a party.”
A Clinton resident who teaches subjects like Geometry and advanced Algebra, he doesn’t need a calculator to figure out that God gave him remarkable strength to take on cancer from day one.
Throughout the difficult journey, the Clinton High graduate focused on his favorite verse in the Bible – 1 Samuel 17:45.
“David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.’”
Besides trusting in the Lord, Bryce Yelverton thanks the support of his wife, Carly, a December 2014 Mississippi College physician assistant graduate, for helping him win the fight of his life.
To read his blog, go to bryceyelverton.blogspot.com
