Forrest Gump Has Nothing On Cameron Mathison: He's a Superstar!

by LarryDeezell | September 25, 2009 at 09:17 am

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A rare and difficult condition called Perthes Disease had soap opera actor and a veteran of "Dancing with the Stars," Cameron Mathison, in leg braces as a child.

Cameron's own mother, Loretta Mathison, thought he would never walk normal again, now she's amazed that he's participating in a ballroom dance competition. Cameron's father, Bill Mathison, had said "Cameron was incredibly active until he began to experience pain in one of his legs at the age of four, it persisted, so we took him to a doctor and immediately when the doctor saw him walking with a characteristic limp, he diagnosed him."

Mathison was diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease called Perthes disease, which cuts off the blood supply to the femoral bone in the ball-and-socket hip joint, causing it to weaken and degenerate

Mathison suffered from a degenerate bone disease that required him to wear braces on his legs until he was 7-years-old, the fact he made it as far as he did is a noteworthy accomplishment

Loretta had expalins that "what happens is there was an interruption in the blood supply to the head of the femur bone and that was causing it to soften and cause pain, Cameron was given a leg brace to keep his femur tucked inside his hip joint, which was the standard treatment at the time"

"He was really held prisoner in that brace for four years," added his mother. "You're just trapped in it."

The braces had come off after four years and unexpectedly Cameron had started skiing that same year.

"I really probably went a little bit overboard to prove to myself and to prove to other people that's not what I was or who I was," he said. "Skiing became a really important sort of experience to kind of get out there and have all this freedom and movement."

Skiing was not the end of his active life, Cameron's well known for his dance moves on "Dancing with the Stars."