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Almost blinded as a boy, Ryan Cameron helps kids see his vision


Photo: STARZ Network

Over the years, Ryan Cameron, has repeated the story of how he was almost blinded as a boy. But the story has never been told with this much depth and emotion. In a revealing interview with the AJC, Cameron explained how fear of his mother’s abusive boyfriend drove him into his isolation and self-harming behavior.

    Cameron was 9, an only child at home with the chickenpox. His mom was at work, and he was scared.

    He closed the door to his room, to keep away from his mom’s longtime, live-in boyfriend.

    The guy pushed him around and taunted him by hiding the only Afro comb in the house. Cameron watched during a rainstorm as the man beat his dog on their apartment balcony.

    “He had a substance abuse problem and was always in between jobs,” Cameron said. “He was the kind of guy who would get shot in a bar fight. You get people like that and it’s like, how come no one’s killed you yet?”

    Cameron was afraid if he told his mom of the abuse, she would believe her boyfriend instead.

    Alone, Cameron entertained himself. He wound a rubber band around a ruler and fired at toy soldiers.

    This day, the ruler snapped.

    One piece stabbed his left eye.

    Bleeding, he held out as long as he could in his room. Finally, he opened the door.


Cameron wore an eye patch and then glasses. His experience gave him a gift of gab and a quick wit. When schoolmates teased him about his eye, he cracked back at them and walked away.

Eventually, his mother kicked her boyfriend out once it dawned on her how his abuse caused her son’s injury. One of 14 black students at Campbell High School in Smyrna, Cameron became senior class president and earned a scholarship to West Georgia where he took up an interest in radio broadcasting.

Today, Cameron is one of the leading radio jocks in the country commanding a six-figure salary as midday host of the Ryan Cameron Show on V-103. He used his talent and money to start a boys mentoring program called the Leadership Academy.

The program provides boys with free medical and dental benefits as well as a personal library, the latest gear and backpacks filled with resources for high school and college. But every once in a while one of his boys will get off track, then Cameron gives him something money can’t buy - unconditional love and a serious talking to.

Antonio Avery, 17, had this to say about Cameron: “He’s sincere. He tells me what he expects of me. He wants me to get on the right track. … I see a lot in myself, but he sees stuff in me, too. Stuff I can’t see.” READ MORE…

 

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