Olympic Skater Inspires Fellow Cancer Survivors

Early in a speech he delivered at a cancer survivor celebration event Saturday, former Olympic gold medal-winning figure skater Scott Hamilton expressed his motto: "The only disability in life is a bad attitude."

Hamilton, a 1990 inductee into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame, was at Manchester Memorial Hospital as keynote speaker for the Eastern Connecticut Health Network's eighth annual Cancer Survivor's Day. He spoke before a packed house in the hospital auditorium, with numerous others watching his address on closed-circuit television in an adjoining room.

The skater was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1997, and fully recovered through chemotherapy and surgery. Then, in 2004, he was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor, which he had been born with. The tumor was treated with radiation, and was surgically removed last year.

Hamilton spoke emotionally about the impact his mother Dorothy had on his life. She developed breast cancer and eventually succumbed to the disease, but the memory of her courageous battle helped her son through his own fight for life.

"Is there a more powerful group of human beings on the planet than cancer survivors?" he rhetorically asked the audience. He spoke of the ups and downs of being a world-class athlete, comparing them to the peaks and valleys cancer patients experience on their road to recovery.

"In 1981, I had to compete in the World Championships without my support system, and it was a roller coaster," he said. "When something great would happen, something devastating would be the heels of it. I began to dread opportunity, until I went to Sarajevo in 1984 (for the Winter Olympics). I won, and I'm standing up there on the podium listening to the anthem and I'm thinking, I want my mom - I want her to be here, and she was because without her, that moment never would have happened. This was a moment shared with everyone in the United States - I got to represent the United States of America by winning an Olympic gold medal for my country, and there was never a prouder moment than hearing that anthem and knowing I'd navigated everything I said I was going to do for my mom, with my mom. She was with me every step of the way, and it was phenomenal."

Hamilton concluded his presentation by telling the survivors, "You're extraordinary, you're champions, you're amazing. What you have faced and what you have conquered, what you are living with every day is awesome. I'll never look at cancer as truly a blessing, but I look at it as something that happened in my life that made me stronger, better and tougher. I don't know many of you personally, but I love you all because of what you're doing to fight back this disease."

Following the speech, Hamilton crossed the street to the John A. DeQuattro Cancer Center, where he posed for photos and signed free copies of his book, "The Great Eight: How to Be Happy (Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable)”.

"He is a great motivational speaker, very inspiring, a very dynamic type of personality," said survivor Marti Artilles of Vernon. Her daughter Kristen, a 13-year cancer survivor, added, "I've admired him since I was a little kid, and I love him even more now."

Caroline Quish of Manchester, a 28-year survivor, said, "He was absolutely fabulous. He's such an inspiration, and this is a wonderful day to see all of these survivors."