“In my experience of being medically handicapped, I was exposed to so many things early on that I often heard the saying, ‘You seem a lot more mature for your age.’ I always think, ‘Yes, because I had to think about health insurance at the age of seven.’ But in other cases, I had no experience. I couldn’t talk to peers. I had no social skills. 

I have severe food allergies, so I’m anaphylactic to wheat, milk, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, and fish. I like to say that I’m allergic to the world. When I was first diagnosed, I can vividly remember at the age of four, when my consciousness had just popped into being, that my first thoughts were along the lines of ‘I am going to die.’ I had to think about the world in a very black-and-white way. Like, ‘That piece of bread is not food for me; it’s death.’ And that’s how I survived. 

My very first camp session was back in 2012 when I was nine years old. It was just my mom and me, and we did a family camp first. I made a friend who shared the same diagnosis, and we came back year after year. 

It was always about freedom for me, to just let go for once and not think about medical stuff, whether it was going out on the sports court or just throwing a football with my friend. These things were technically possible to do before camp, but I couldn’t truly let go without worrying about ending up back in a hospital.

Every day I spent at camp, I saw more of my true self come out that I didn’t realize was there. And then, over the years, I saw that turn into who I wanted to be and who I am now. It was all these small moments in a week-long camp that led to an unconscious transformation, and now I’m proud of who I am today.”

– Spencer Baylor is a Program Coordinator at Flying Horse Farms, a nonprofit dedicated to providing medically safe camp experiences for kids with serious illnesses at no cost. He is in charge of Aquatics and Adventure, and instills confidence, joy, and hope in the kids he works with.