Leaps and Bounds: Ironman spirit conquers illness

Cameron Houston has his heart set on becoming a special-effects expert in Hollywood. Picture / Fotopress

Cameron Houston is into sports.

The 13-year-old, the son of an Ironman competitor, plays soccer and tennis. He is also an accomplished debater, head of the school's lighting department and a top academic achiever.

Cameron does all this despite having the debilitating genetic disease cystic fibrosis.

To combat the incurable disease, Cameron spends up to three months each year in hospital and undergoes constant physiotherapy. But Cameron refuses to let it get the better of him.

"The disease makes all the mucus in my lungs sticky and it clogs up my digestive system. I can breathe, it just makes it quite hard to breathe. And I can't digest food properly so I have to take enzymes and tablets to help me digest food.

"I'm in hospital a lot for antibiotics, plus I have to do physio both after school and before school. It makes it really hard just getting everything done - homework and sport and all that sort of stuff.

"It makes it quite hard to run because it's hard to breathe. But I keep on because it makes me healthy. The more that I do, the healthier I stay.

"My mum's Tracey Richardson - she's done Ironman and stuff. Mum shows me anything is possible. She's just great. She's always there.

"I go to Lindisfarne [College in Hastings] and I'm on the lighting crew and I'm in a tennis team and a soccer team and I love technology and science and stuff. I want to be a special-effects person in Hollywood.

"It's pretty hard - there's quite a bit of physio and stuff after school, especially when I'm in hospital. But somehow I get by, I don't really know how, it just sort of ends up like that. It's just getting around it.

"Every three months I do about two weeks [in hospital]. School's just down the road so I can walk or bike, but I don't have a desk there, so it's quite hard to do work, but I get by.

"Sometimes I'll come home and do it and then go back to the hospital. I'll stay overnight at the hospital and I'll just come home after school and then go back at night.

"To me it's not really that much - I do it so much that I get use to it.

"If you stick to it, eventually you're going to come out on top.

"You're all going to die one day so youshould just make the most of what youdo while you're here and try to make it as long as possible."