After losing son to testicular cancer, parent wants to teach awareness

Michael Muriett’s 19-year-old son Justin died from testicular cancer a year ago, a little more than a year after graduating from Maricopa High School.

That is why Muriett wants to speak at the district’s middle schools and the high school – to raise awareness about testicular cancer, which predominantly affects males ages 15 to 35, and so he can help save other lives.

But Muriett said the Maricopa Unified School District denied his initial request to speak at the schools, saying the content was too sensitive for students.

Superintendent Steve Chestnut said he learned about the request being denied during Wednesday evening’s school board meeting, when Muriett spoke during the call to the public.

Chestnut said he is looking into the matter.

“I wasn’t even aware of this situation till last night. He didn’t talk to me. We’re just trying to get to the bottom of it, find out who he talked to, and what our options are,” Chestnut said.

Muriett said Chestnut called him Thursday morning, and that he’s hopeful they can work something out.

Spreading awareness is important, Muriett said, because there is such a stigma associated with testicular cancer. Justin probably started showing symptoms in high school, but didn’t know what the problem was or didn’t want to talk about it.

Muriett said he hopes to explain to students that it’s OK to talk about a problem if they notice one.

“Unfortunately these are guys we’re talking about and guys are embarrassed to talk about stuff like that,” Muriett said.

There are a number of symptoms most people don’t associate with testicular cancer, like back pain, weight loss, headaches, difficulty breathing and enlarged lymph nodes in the abdomen or neck.

In Justin’s case, it was the week of Thanksgiving 2011. He started experiencing horrible back pain so his family took him to the hospital.

“They did a scan and found it,” Muriett said.

Doctors performed a surgery, but five days later Justin had to go back to the hospital because one of the tumors had spread to his spinal cord. It compressed his spinal cord to the point he was paralyzed.

“He had to go through the whole process of learning how to walk again,” Muriett said.

Justin went through physical therapy and began walking with a cane. He also continued with radiation and chemotherapy, but right when he was getting ready to finish chemotherapy, doctors found more tumors in places they hadn’t seen before. This time the cancer wasn’t treatable.

“He passed away on Aug. 20,” Muriett said. It was a few weeks before his 20th birthday.

Soon after his son passed, Muriett began talking to a representative from the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation. He knew he wanted to get involved, but needed time to grieve.

In January, he started volunteering with the foundation, and he said he sent his initial request to the district’s Health Services Department. The people he worked with were very open to the idea, he said.

“I approached them in January with the idea and they said once I have a presentation or a curriculum to let them know and pass it along,” Muriett said.

***ADVERTISEMENT***Muriett said he sent the district a presentation in the beginning of the summer and received a response last week, saying the material was too sensitive for the classroom and the district would prefer to deal with the subject on a one-to-one basis.

Muriett said he thinks districts across the state and the nation have a similar perception of what they think students can handle.

“The adults are a little naive in what they think the kids can handle,” he said. “These kids can handle it, and hopefully it saves a life. That’s the goal of the whole thing is to catch early. We weren’t that lucky with Justin.”