Every year Camas High School theater students take part in a play for cancer research, and this year is no exception with “Sillyheart”. The play makes people think about what it is like to lose a child to incurable cancer. As a result, the play will broaden how the audience looks at the toll cancer takes everyday life.

Before the actors take the stage, a cancer survivor tells the audience about her experience as a high school student battling cancer. The shocking story shows how she lived through this unfortunate disease in a touching and emotional way.

Sophomore Collin Kauzlaric, who plays the dad and king, said, “ It has given me more emotion on what cancer does to people, and it is sad to think that anyone should have to deal with it.” He is not the only one who has a shifted perspective on the disease.  Many of the students who read through the script cried because it was so emotional to imagine  a child and her family go through something so traumatic.

Sophomore Izzy Rhodes, who played Aquilla, a water goddess in the play, has dealt with cancer in her family and says, “I never realized that it is okay not understanding what people are going through, but you should acknowledge what they are feeling. And cancer is a thing that happens to people in life and it is really unfortunate and we need to talk more about ways we can help stop it.” Rhodes is a very determined student to show people around her how this play can impact people’s lives to think more of cancer.

“Sillyheart” is a story of one person coping and then coming to the realization that it is her time to go. The tearjerking play shows the audience it needs to think more about cancer even if it has never happened to their own family.