Families Affected By Huntersville Eye Cancer Cluster Hope Research Funding Is Approved

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – There’s renewed hope for families affected by a mysterious eye cancer cluster in Huntersville.

North Carolina lawmakers have included $150,000 in research funding in the proposed House budget.

Families hope the money doesn’t get cut before reaching Governor Cooper’s desk.

Sue Colbert lost her daughter Kenan seven years ago to ocular melanoma.

“She was 23 when she was diagnosed. In the prime of her life, healthy and athletic,” Colbert says.

Since then, she and her family have fought for answers as to what’s causing the rare cancer to affect so many young women in the Huntersville area.

“We just never gave up hope that there wouldn’t be a miracle tossed our way. And when that didn’t come, it changed our lives,” Colbert says.

Research money has run out, but there’s hope more could be on the way in the proposed House budget.

Colbert is cautiously optimistic.

“This money, $150,000 dollars, was in there two years ago and then that budget was never approved,” Colbert says.

State Senator Natasha Marcus says there’s no reason funding the research shouldn’t be a bi-partisan issue everyone supports.

“I do think that everyone who’s been touched by ocular melanoma wants to know why. And all the residents who are fearful it could happen to them or their children want to know how to avoid it in the future,” Marcus says.

“”I’m just trying to make sure that we look into every possibility. We don’t want any other parent to have to go down this road or be a member of this club that we’re in,” Colbert says.