Ben Watson is like a lot of University of Central Florida students: He likes music, playing the guitar and camping with his friends, and he hasn\u2019t quite figured out his major yet.<\/p>\n
But few Knights can say they\u2019ve had as great an impact on as many lives. Just 19 years old, Watson has already founded a cancer foundation that\u2019s raised more than $250,000 and helped more than 200 families.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I wanted to do something to help,\u201d Ben said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what it would evolve into or what it would become.\u201d<\/p>\n
It started when he was 14. He\u2019d been feeling fatigued, and grew winded easily. At marching band practice at Lake Highland Preparatory School, he\u2019d frequently have to sit and rest.<\/p>\n
A diagnosis finally came from Florida Hospital, but it was something no one wanted to hear: non-Hodgkin large B-cell lymphoma.<\/p>\n
Cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I really understood it at the time. It was a lot harder on my parents,\u201d Ben said.<\/p>\n
Ben\u2019s father can attest to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctor said there was a mass the size of a grapefruit in his chest,\u201d Barry Watson said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a bag of rocks hitting you in the face when somebody tells you that about your kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Ben\u2019s hospital visits for chemotherapy and radiation treatments, he saw that many other children with cancer didn\u2019t have family at their bedsides.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving constant support from my friends and family was something that really helped me get through this, but these kids weren\u2019t able to have that support,\u201d Ben said. \u201cParents go through their paid leave and then they have to choose between going back to work or staying with their kid. And if they don\u2019t go back to work they\u2019ll lose their insurance, and won\u2019t be able to pay for food, utilities and other expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben and his family decided to hold a fund-raiser to help. They sold rubber bracelets at school and a few classmates planned to shave their heads in solidarity with Ben, who was then a high school freshman. In the end about 100 students shaved their heads as part of what grew into \u201cBuzz for Ben.\u201d They raised about $10,000.<\/p>\n
Soon, The Benji Watson Cancer Foundation was formed. The charity focuses on families dealing with pediatric cancer, helping them with day-to-day expenses: groceries, gas, utilities, rent.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit organization holds an annual fund-raising event that raises $20,000 to $40,000; this year it\u2019s on Dec. 19 at The Abbey in downtown Orlando. The Foundation also receives funding raised by a larger pediatric cancer charity, Runway to Hope. The $250,000 collected by The Benji Watson Cancer Foundation since 2010 has been used to help more than 200 families at Florida Hospital and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.<\/p>\n
The charity is a family affair, run together by Ben, his father, mother Becky and sister Hillary.<\/p>\n
Ben, who begins his sophomore year with the fall semester, lives on the UCF campus in the Towers housing community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Watson is like a lot of University of Central Florida students: He likes music, playing the guitar and camping with his friends, and he hasn\u2019t quite figured out his major yet. But few Knights can say they\u2019ve had as great an impact on as many lives. Just 19 years old, Watson has already founded a cancer foundation that\u2019s raised…","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":67343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[12,27],"tags":[202],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-67340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-student-life","tag-alumni"],"yoast_head":"\n