Former Carrollton resident and cancer survivor Emily Garner used to spend time each summer at Camp Sunshine, a camp for children with cancer. At 28, she still spends time each summer at Camp Sunshine, but now as a counselor.

Garner was diagnosed with retinoblastoma at nine months. That was on Sept. 18, 1981, recalls Jerri Garner, Emily’s mother.

“Our lives changed forever that day,” she said.

They had taken her to the eye doctor because of a lazy eye expecting she would have to wear glasses. They were shocked when the doctor told them she had a growth in her other eye and even more shocked when he said it might be cancer.

“When we left that day and it began a whole saga of doctors and trying to decide what to do,” Jerri Garner said. “We were totally lost at the time.”

The condition was very rare and the family traveled to New York City to Columbia Presbyterian to see a doctor, only to find that the doctor couldn’t help her. Because the cancer was so rare, the treatment was a lot of guesswork, Jerri Garner said. Even today, Emily is dealing with some of the effects of the treatments she received. She is completely blind in her right eye and has corrective vision in her left eye, but she is cancer free.

“We did the best that we were offered at the time,” Jerri Garner said.

They were lucky, Emily’s father, Carrollton Mayor Wayne Garner, said.

“At the time, back in the early 80s, 80 percent of all the children that were diagnosed with cancer died,” Wayne Garner said. “Now, that statistic has completely turned around and 80 percent of children who are diagnosed with cancer now live.”

But facing those odds with their daughter was terrifying and they know how lucky they are. So does Emily, but she didn’t always understand. As a young girl, she felt very self-conscious and alone with her disease.

“At that time, I was one of the only children in Carrollton who had experienced cancer,” Emily Garner said. “I felt like I really had nobody to relate to and I had also at that point had to have a couple of reconstructive surgeries from radiation that had severely deformed my facial area, my forehead and temples especially.”

Her doctor and her parents had encouraged her to attend Camp Sunshine to find some escape from her disease. The camp, founded in 1982, offered its first summer camp in 1983, a place where the children could leave behind clinics and doctor visits and just be kids. The first year, 44 children attended but every year that number has grown. Today, the camp offers 375 children the chance to forget about their illnesses.

But, year after year Emily refused to go to the camp. Then, when Emily was 13, her friend Amanda was diagnosed with bone cancer and died. That was when Emily knew she was not alone.

“So, in 95, I finally bit the bullet and went,” she said. “I thought, it’s just a week and I’ll probably hate it, but I’ll just try it.”

But she didn’t hate it. The camp changed her life. It was nothing like she thought. Instead of being focused on the disease, the camp allowed her to bond with other kids who were dealing with the same thing and yet were still joyful.

“It made me realize that even though I may not be able to see, and even though my face looks different than a lot of people, that wasn’t what was important,” Emily Garner said. “What is so important is what they are on the inside and that we are stronger than we think we are.”

The camp gave Emily a new passion, Wayne Garner said.

After attending the camp for several years as a camper, she applied to be an assistant counselor and then a counselor. She went to Auburn University and majored in child life planning to work with sick and hospitalized children. She has written about the experience and been able to raise sizeable donations for the camp. She is now attending Lipscomb University in Nashville getting her graduate degree in elementary education.

Emily said now her greatest regret is that she resisted attending Sunshine Camp in the first place. She intends to continue working at the camp until they kick her out in her “wheelchair or walker, till I’m a blue-haired old lady.” She still gains as much strength from the campers as she gives, she said.

“Seeing the bravery of these children gives me the bravery year long to do things I don’t necessarily want to do,” Emily Garner said. “I’ve got to have an eye surgery this summer actually, and I want to have a little pity party. But I think what’s a little eye surgery, these kids face so many worse things and are so brave and strong about it.”