AJs Memorial

On Sunday March 10, 2019 Aaron “AJ” Joshua Cameron passed away at the age of 18 years. AJ’s short life was not an easy one however his indomitable spirit and amazing attitude was an inspiration to us all. AJ was born in Hattiesburg, MS where he attended school until the 8th grade at Baxterville Attendance Center. He then moved with his family to North Pole, AK where he attended North Pole Junior and Senior High School. AJ was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 7 and spent the majority of his life valiantly fighting to become seizure free. He was very interested in the medical science of his condition and would openly talk and educate everyone about epilepsy. Throughout elementary school AJ brought epilepsy education coloring books for all of his classmates at the beginning of every year and would talk to them and his teachers about what to do in case of a seizure. He was highly intelligent, placed in gifted classes, and attended the University of Southern Mississippi Gifted Studies Program every spring. One of his favorite activities was attending a summer camp hosted by the Epilepsy Foundation of Mississippi.  Throughout AJ’s junior high and high school years he continued to talk about epilepsy and advocate for himself. Epilepsy and seizures were his go to topics for any report or research paper he was assigned. Having missed over a cumulative year of high school he was still on track to graduate on time this spring.  AJ was an extremely caring, compassionate and empathetic young man. He raised money for children’s cancer research with the St. Baldric’s Foundation while in the hospital recovering from one of his neurosurgeries, volunteered for a pediatric asthma study as part of the control group and donated the brain tissue that was removed during one of his surgeries to be used in a case study on hard to treat epilepsy in the hopes that other children would not have to go through what he had. He was also featured in Seattle Children's Hospital Connections magazine. He was an absolutely amazing kid with a wonderfully goofy sense of humor who loved to sneak up on and startle his family and friends. He loved video games, Star Wars, Legos, his baseball blanket and anything to do with pirates. One of his favorite memories was of the Make A Wish trip that was granted to him. AJ and his family spent a week in Florida and went to Disney World where he got to meet his hero Captain Jack Sparrow.  AJ was an inspiration and joy to everyone that was fortunate enough to have met him. He will be forever loved, cherished and remembered by his parents Josh and Brittney Cameron, his sisters Mikaela Malone and Mikenzie Cameron, nephew baby Trevor, grandparents Theresa Johnson, Barry and Denise Corell, LW and Alice Cameron and Jerry Richardson as well as numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, extended family and many wonderfully dear friends. One of AJ’s favorite quotes came from the movie Treasure Planet: “You got the makings of greatness in you, but you gotta take the helm and chart your own course! Stick to it, no matter the squalls!” -John Silver And chart his own course he did. In addition to AJ's passing Josh, AJ's dad, had a heart attack on February 25th and will be off work and home recovering until mid May. It is our hope that the funds raised will help this family to focus on laying AJ to rest and grieving their loss rather than worrying about the financial stress a tragedy like this can cause. Thank you for supporting this family in their time of need and keeping them all in your thoughts and prayers.