There is a lot Atticus Hampton enjoys in life, whether it is his love for all animals, dinosaurs, or eating Little Debbie cakes; all those pale in comparison to his love for playing baseball and football.
Although, in September, the 7-year-old’s favorite sports activities were interrupted after he became ill. Atticus was with his family at Socastee High School in Myrtle Beach, watching his father, head coach Ben Hampton, and his team in action.
Atticus’s parents, Ben, and Catherine Hampton noticed something was off with him.
“He’s the kid that wakes up at 5 a.m. and he’s 100 miles an hour until 8 p.m. when he goes to bed. Like, he doesn’t rest, he doesn’t slow down. He eats and drinks like a horse,” Ben said. “And a lot of that had just changed.”
The next morning, Atticus came down with a stomach ache and fever.
His parents treated his stomach ache and low-grade fever as normal, but after a few days the aches were ongoing, so his parents took Atticus to his pediatrician and he was later transferred to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center. Medical staff ran blood tests and the first tests came back inconclusive, then Atticus’s family took him back to the doctor for more tests. But those had the same results.
The Hamptons demanded lab work for their son. The lab’s doctors found his white blood cell counts were very high and his blood had begun thickening.
Atticus was then airlifted to MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital in Charleston on Sept. 29.
There, the Hamptons received the devastating news: Atticus had Acute Myeloid Leukemia or (AML), a rare form of blood and bone marrow cancer.
For his parents, the signs of AML were not shown, which made it hard to understand the rare cancer.
“It was just uncharted territory for all of us. So we’ve learned a lot about the disease and, and how it works and, you know, but, and once we figured out what it was and talked to the doctors, we understood that this was the onset of about a week, a week and a half,” Ben said.
When breaking the news to Atticus, Ben Hampton knew his son was aware of the diagnosis, but did not fully know everything so he took an easing approach.
“We just kind of told him his blood was sick. And in telling him that we started discussing what that means and, and what leukemia is,” Ben said.
Atticus’s first round of chemo started the morning after he arrived.
Within a week or two, Atticus went from looking physically healthy to very frail, losing 16 percent of his body weight.
“It was a lot of laying in the bed. Just not feeling good,” Ben said. “We talked quite a bit throughout the process, you know, we let him know when was going to end the [first round of chemo] and when we’d have to start the next.”
Atticus faced a big change. Instead of going to school in person, Atticus had to adjust to online learning.
“He’s your everyday, 7-year-old boy…very nurturing, loves everybody, never met a stranger, loves to help friends whether it’s in the classroom or just with kids he encounters in school,” Ben said.
Wando Head Football Coach Isaiah Perrin heard of Atticus’s battle with Leukemia through a South Carolina Football Coaches Association. The news of Atticus’s illness resonated with Perrin because he is a father also and has had a similar path in football as Ben Hampton.
“It’s shocking because I have a daughter that’s around his son’s age, so you think about it as a father, I could be dealing with that as well, so it’s scary. But you got a community of people that want to support you,” Perrin said.
Perrin held much respect for Ben and decided to be a voice of support for not only him but also Atticus.
“Going through what he’s going through [Ben] is somebody that you can call and just check on and see how he’s doing and it’s more than a game to us. The game’s important, but at the end of the day, you know, there’s a family of football, you know, at each level,” Perrin said.
“When you’re dealing with someone that’s at such a young age as Atticus, you wanna see him have a life, have a family, have kids and do all those things and I think that’s an important [thing to fight for],” Perrin said.
Currently, Atticus is still fighting back against his cancer. A stem cell transplant tentatively scheduled for Mar. 6th.
The Hampton’s express great appreciation for supporting Atticus.
“[For people] to bring awareness to what Atticus is going through in his journey, we can’t say thank you enough. My wife and I can’t tell people how grateful we are,” Ben said.