Published: April 03, 2008 10:04 pm         

Cancer survivor earns degree

When Bill Sparkman earned his teaching degree in February, it wasn’t the usual walk down the aisle to pick up the onion skin. Instead, Sparkman stood in front of his fellow classmates and told his story. What with going back to school at the age of 47, surviving cancer mid-degree and driving through a blizzard to get to the commencement ceremony, Sparkman’s story had the makings of a movie.

In 1993, Sparkman moved to Laurel County as part of an assignment for his job with the Boy Scouts of America. Shortly after arriving, he became a volunteer at Johnson Elementary.

“When I moved here, my son was about to enter elementary school,” he said. “He was having some difficulties.”

Sparkman enjoyed the volunteering and quickly became interested in education. He was eventually offered a position as an instructional assistant, which he accepted.

“For the nine years I did it, I loved it,” he said. “But there were some instructional assistants going back to get their degree to teach.”

Sparkman wanted to do the same but, being a single parent to son Josh, he didn’t think it would be possible.

“If I went to school at night, it would take me forever,” he said. “I also knew that I would have to student teach. I wouldn’t have any income for two or three months.”

In 2004, Sparkman discovered Utah-based Western Governor’s University, an online college that would enable him to study from home. In January 2005, Sparkman took on a part-time position with the U.S. Census Bureau.

“I realized, if I planned accordingly, I could do it,” he said.

Sparkman enrolled in WGU in the summer of 2005. But going to university online presented a unique set of challenges.

“Everything you did you had to write,” Sparkman said. “They score you on your language. Here I was having to write real papers, learn formatting, put together bibliographies. I was scared about that.”

But Sparkman persisted because he was confident he would love his future career.

“All those years I was at Johnson, I taught the first hour of the morning, they called it daily oral review,” he said. “That’s how I knew I would love what I was going to do. I loved teaching that.”

School turned out to be a lot of work, however. Sparkman plowed through classes like ethics, math and diversity in education, spending an average of 20 hours per week studying. But by fall 2007, thanks to getting credit for past college experience, Sparkman was on the home-stretch of his degree, set to graduate at the end of December.

Then he had an ingrown toe nail removed.

“Let me tell you how my toe nails saved my life,” he joked.

In September 2007, during a follow-up after the procedure, Sparkman pointed out to his doctor a cyst he had developed on the side of his neck.

“I’d had a cyst removed on the back of my neck before,” he said. “I didn’t think anything about this one either.”

But when Sparkman showed his doctor the growth, he was concerned.

“As soon as he saw it, I went to the hospital,” Sparkman said.

Sparkman underwent testing for two days and then waited 45 days to get the results.

“That was not a good 45 days,” he said.

He relied on teaching to keep him distracted from his worry.

“Being at school was really good,” he said. “When I was out teaching it wasn’t in my mind.”

When the results came in, Sparkman was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system.

“I was already in Stage 3, which is not very good,” he said.

He was prescribed six sessions of chemotherapy, which started in mid-November and would continue for several months.

All the while, he continued student teaching.

“It never affected me,” he said of the chemo. “I never had any sickness. I would get tired for a couple days after a treatment and, of course, the hair.”

His former Johnson Elementary colleagues rallied around him, however.

“They were sneaky,” he said. “They gave me two huge baskets full of food, books, tapes and clothes and gift certificates. I was just ... I couldn’t believe they’d done that.”

By the end of December, Sparkman had completed his classroom work and student teaching. In answer, his Western Governor’s University mentor asked him to attend graduation in Salt Lake City. She wanted him to speak in front of the largest graduating class of the university’s history — a crowd of 600 students.

“I decided to do it,” he said. “But I couldn’t fly because my blood count was down. I decided to drive.”

Heading out in his S-10 Chevy Feb. 11, Sparkman planned to take four days to get to Salt Lake. Then he hit Wyoming.

“They said they were just getting a couple of inches of snow,” he said. “I figured they had to be better dealing with snow than London. But then they shut the Interstate down. They shut it down for an entire day. Then it was nothing but snow-packed Interstate.”

Luckily, Sparkman had allowed for an extra day to get to Salt Lake and made it to commencement on time. Dressed in cap and gown, he stood in front of his classmates whom he had never met. He had some words of wisdom to impart.

“I’d been knocked down, but I refused to be knocked out,” he said. “Those brick walls will appear from time to time in your career. Do not let them stop you. There are no failures, just teaching moments.”

Sparkman finished his chemotherapy treatment March 7. He will learn whether or not the treatment was successful April 15. Sparkman hopes to get a position teaching math at the middle school level this fall.



Staff writer Tara Kaprowy can be reached by e-mail at tkaprowy@sentinel-echo.com.