Fowler Embraces Community Support During Cancer Fight
Chris Fowler is glad to be back inside of his classroom at Jackson County High School. With a sense of appreciation for the community he lives and works in, Fowler is back teaching U.S. History following another battle with Lymphoma, a blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system.
A day doesn’t go by that Fowler isn’t appreciative of the support he and his family have received from their community.
“Thank you to everyone who has supported us, in any form or fashion,” Fowler said. “It is all special and we feel it. It is working. But also, I know negativity wins in the news a lot. I think this is an opportunity to show positivity. Not for me, but all the people who have supported our family, who go to Jackson County High School, or this school district, or anyone in this community and state who has supported us.
“The world is filled with a lot of good people who do amazing things, and unfortunately they don’t get the spotlight very much. But those are the things that mean the most, and have the impact long-term. So, I want to say thank you, and I hope to repay everybody in some form or fashion.”
Despite being a relatively personal person and not wanting to live in the spotlight, Fowler’s fight against cancer is widely known throughout the community. The support he and his wife, Dani, and their three children have received has been tremendous. From selling bracelets and t-shirts as a fundraiser, to monetary donations, to meals, to prayers and well wishes, Fowler says he has felt this community he loves to call home.
“The mental feeling of knowing you’re not fighting it alone, which is what you definitely feel like in the beginning,” Fowler said. “It is hard, though, because I don’t like attention. Unfortunately, this is what it has brought. It is not hard to say thank you, it is hard to accept help even when you need it.”
Fowler’s mainstay of support is Dani, who serves as a Family and Consumer Science teacher at JCHS. Fowler, fighting through emotions during a recent interview, couldn’t help but talk about the support she brings to him and their boys.
“I couldn’t have done this without her,” said Fowler. “I think about that a lot. It is demoralizing to hear (cancer) is back and to know how positive she has stayed, and how hard she fought to keep things normal at home. So to go through it again, I was honestly more upset for her and the kids.”
Fowler says while battling cancer is physically and emotionally exhausting, the hardest part was being isolated at the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s hospital for nearly a month. That was a month away from his wife, kids, classroom, and the varsity football team during their final three weeks of the season.
Fowler admits that he got pretty bored in the hospital as the doctors pumped medicine in him. He was able to stay connected to his family and his football team, watching the Panthers’ final three football games of the season on video webcast.
“Obviously, I am hoping and praying that things worked right,” Fowler said. “For the procedure, it wasn’t as invasive as I thought. I just sat there and had medicine drip in me for six days and then they put my stem cells back in me and they drew blood. I basically just sat in the room or walked through the hallways. That was mentally very hard. I could look out the window but I couldn’t go anywhere. You do feel tired and stuff, but it did get boring. I got to watch our last two games and our playoff game on the network.”
Fowler said while he was forced to miss the last three games, not being there and being able to watch from afar brought a new sense of appreciation.
“It was hard (watching), because it is obviously what I love to do, and I wanted to be there with our kids and coaching staff, because you work all year long to build that chemistry and brotherhood,” Fowler said. “But at the same time it allowed me to see, from a different perspective when I don’t have a headset on and can’t call down to the field to talk to people, you see how well our kids play, how disciplined they are, how tough they play, and how well our coaching staff has them prepared.
“And it sucks knowing I wasn’t a part of that preparation for those three weeks, but our staff did such a good job at getting them prepared that it makes you proud, and that we are doing special things with special kids.”
As part of his treatment in Birmingham, Fowler says the doctors were “basically trying to hit reset on my immune system.” As part of the treatment he has gone through, Fowler will now have to get all the vaccinations he received as a child, describing his immune system as two months old.
Fowler admits he has good days and bad days, knowing there is still uncertainty in the future and if the cancer is truly gone. He has scans in the future that will continue to closely monitor his health.
He has made it clear, though, he and Dani are remaining optimistic.
“I am nervous, I am,” Fowler said. “I still have my hard days and bad days. So having those hard mental days is tough, but being able to come home and talk to my wife and without missing a beat she is like ‘it is all going to be okay, no matter the outcome.’ She keeps me grounded in my faith, and not that I have lost faith, but it’s been hard, and I don’t know where I would be without her. Teaching is hard and raising sons ages 6, 4 and 2 is hard.”
The community support the Fowlers’ received is exactly why they chose to live in Jackson County and then move their professional careers to the JCHS. Both he and Dani wanted to have that hometown connection, raising their kids, teaching and coaching in a close-knit community when they moved here eight years ago. The support they received, though, was even more than they could have expected.
“My third year (working at JCHS), having to go through cancer, that isn’t this community’s burden to bear, and they picked it up,” Fowler said. “Which says a lot to me about the people who live in this community. We have a community full of people who love each other, who support each other, who will pick you up and give you a hug. I have seen kids around the school, after this second time around when they did the t-shirt fundraiser, that I have never taught before, and I don’t know their names. We have a lot of kids. And I saw three this morning that were wearing the shirts. I don’t know who they are but I know they paid money for that shirt to help support myself, my wife and kids.
“That, unfortunately, is becoming a rarity today, but that is normal here in Jackson County. I can’t say thank you enough. I can’t describe the feeling. It makes me, obviously, give more of me than I can give. I want to repay the favor. I want to help in any way I can, and if right now that means educating your kids and students as much as possible, and developing our athletes as much as possible, then that is what I am going to do.”
Fowler said his goal moving forward is to pay back the support he and his family have received, in whatever form that may look like to the community. He said he doesn’t want his legacy to be him fighting cancer in back-to-back fall seasons. Instead, he wants his legacy to be about the impact he has and will continue to make in the community.
“I don’t want cancer to be my legacy,” Fowler said. “I also feel like this has made me want to outwork the disease. Watching what happened with Heather Backer, and knowing her, like our community is pulling for a ton of people. Her legacy isn’t cancer, it is all the good that she did. So, my hope and prayer is that I get the opportunity and time to have that kind of impact on our community, like she did.
“To give back to the community, I don’t know how else to do it other than that.”