Help raise funds to fight cancer
HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE — “Hard work and faith in God helped Joey and Lynn Clampit get through cancer, start a life together and open Clampit’s County Kitchen. They are giving back to the community that has welcomed them with open arms,” states the press release.
Joey Clampit’s career love is the meat industry, but he started his career as a counselor. One day in 2002, he noticed a lump on the side of his neck and saw a doctor who happened to be a friend. She gave him antibiotics and sent him home. The lump got bigger so he made a trip to Pine Bluff ENT for a needle biopsy.
“Joey was a big, strong guy in his early 30s, healthy with no history of cancer, other than an uncle who had skin cancer. The test came back inconclusive. The doctor agreed to see him in his office after hours since he didn’t have health insurance. After a couple of hours of digging around under local anesthesia, Joey had enough. He was put in Jefferson Memorial hospital where they got a good tissue sample and waited another week for results. This tissue sample showed different results and Joey was referred to UAMS, where he had the tumor removed from his neck which was diagnosed as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, stage 2.”
He drove himself for his chemo treatments every other week for a few months and then radiation 5 times a week for a month. He was working the night shift so that he could get treatments during the day and care for family. Joey Clampit had lost his father, stepmother and sister in a car accident a few years prior and was helping care for his grandmother, who had dementia, during this time.
The treatments would knock him down for a day or two, but then he would rebound. He had a hard time eating and swallowing, but is thankful that most of the feeling came back. His medical care was over $125,000 and he lost his house. He then moved to Hot Springs, where he had grown up, and got back into the meat industry. He was active in his church and loved to ride his motorcycle. His life changed again as he was heading home from church one day and was hit broadside by deer and knocked off his motorcycle. He had to learn how to walk again and take care of himself. Soon after, he met his wife.
Lynn Clampit loved life and her family. On Dec. 25, 2000, she was 34 years old when she found a lump in her breast. Since she worked in the medical field, she was able to get a mammogram and ultrasound and was told the lump was nothing to worry about. However, a needle biopsy a few months later confirmed that it was a solid mass.
She had surgery to remove the tumor on April 6, 2001, and when she woke up, was told she had cancer and had a partial mastectomy. Her cancer, invasive ductal carcinoma in-situ. Another procedure was done to remove the sentinel and five surrounding lymph nodes. This day was the day of her grandmother’s funeral. Since Lynn Clampit was so young and had a 5-year-old daughter, she opted for the strongest chemotherapy, knowing that she would never be able to get pregnant again. After her port was put in, she started chemo treatments. Each treatment began with an anti-nausea medicine, but she still struggled with severe nausea. Her mother came to help care for her and her daughter for the first week after her chemo. She worked between chemo rounds throughout her treatment. Due to the buildup of toxins from the chemo in her body, she became very ill after her third round of chemo and was hospitalized for the fourth round. She then started eight weeks of radiation, which she completed in October 2001.
Lynn Clampit’s hair had begun to grow back, she was starting to eat and getting back her sense of smell when, during a follow-up with her oncologist in November 2001, her doctor found a spot on her back that looked suspicious. The spot, along with several others, was biopsied and the result, melanoma. The tumor was removed and the pathology report showed margins to be free of cancer and no further treatment was necessary.
In January 2002, she had an ovarian cyst, the size of a grapefruit, removed from her right ovary. Good news, no cancer this time!
Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer while she was receiving radiation therapy for her
breast cancer. Several years later, Lynn Clampit’s mother was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer, so Lynn Clampit left her job to care for her mother. She moved her mother back to Arkansas so she could be close to her sisters and she soon began hospice care to help keep her comfortable. Lynn Clampit found a job in Hot Springs and this is where she met Joey Clampit. He proposed to her at her mother’s bed before her mother died on June 10. The Clampits were married on Sept. 15, 2013.
Lynn Clampit didn’t dwell on her cancer, but reiterated that is was a blessing to care for her mother and that God sent Joey Clampit to be in her life. He said in the release, “Be good stewards of blessings received.”
“God has blessed them and their business and they are adamant about giving back to the community that has blessed them.” They both believe in supporting cancer research as the money helps develop new therapies and alternatives such as immunology treatment. The public can meet the Clampits Saturday at the 17th annual Village Walk for Cancer Research. They will be there cooking brats and Petit Jean hot dogs and greeting all of the walkers. Also, it will be Joey Clampit’s birthday and Sweet Cheeks has donated a cake in his honor!
The opening ceremonies begin at 7:30 a.m., rain or shine, at the Balboa Pavilion, 476 Ponce de Leon Drive, Hot Springs Village. Sponsorship and walker registration forms at http:// walkforcancerreach.org. The registration fee is $35 and includes a T-shirt. The goal is to raise $50,000 for the Seeds of Science Program at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at UAMS. “Plan on joining us as we celebrate the lives of cancer survivors and remember and honor those who have lost their lives to the disease. You can make a difference by helping us help others!”
For more information, call Melanie Pederson at 608-6920458 or email chairman@walkforcancerresearch.org.