Matthew Noyes probably wasn’t the first college freshman to have double vision during finals week at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, but his eyes were not suffering from long nights spent studying or the stress of playing on the college football team. 

“I told him to go to the nurse practitioner right away,” Matthew Noyes’ mother, Nancy Noyes – a practicing nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital – said. “Of course he didn’t because he was coming home the next day.”

Despite Matthew Noyes’ primary doctor insisting the pain was simply stress related and there was “nothing to worry about,” Nancy Noyes brought her son from their home in Scarborough to an optometrist in Saco who determined there was swelling behind his eyes.

“I just knew something was wrong,” Nancy Noyes said. “If your gut tells you something’s up, you have to keep going back.”

Matthew Noyes’ next appointment was with a neurosurgeon who determined the problems were being caused by a malignant brain tumor in his left temporal lobe. Matthew Noyes, age 19, went into the operating room the very next day, Nancy Noyes said. 

“They expected the surgery to last about six hours,” she said. “He came out after two and we figured ‘Great, they can’t get it all,’ but they said they got everything.”

Even though Matthew Noyes’ operation was six years ago, Nancy Noyes said St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. took every stride to make sure Matthew Noyes and his family were cared for before and after the procedure. She said they originally chose the hospital because she knew several doctors there and St. Jude would help the entire Noyes family with transportation, food and a place to stay during Matthew Noyes’ operation and recovery. 

“It was such a relief,” Nancy Noyes said. “It really helped.”

For the Noyes family, recovering from the emotional and physical stress of Matthew’s successful operation meant becoming part of the solution for other people in similar situations. Nancy Noyes said they immediately began raising funds to donate to St. Jude, founded in the 1960s, which has programs specifically designed to help people in need of treatment but cannot necessarily afford costly medical procedures. 

“We raised about $25,000 in 2002,” she said.

Nancy Noyes said her son continued working and enjoying life while she and her husband took their fundraising efforts to a new level in 2007 by establishing The Noyes Brain Tumor Foundation – a non-profit group that raises money specifically for brain tumor research and procedures at St. Jude. 

“It was a no-brainer for us,” Nancy Noyes said. “It was a way of giving back. We wanted to do anything we could do to support others.”

Nancy Noyes said the hospital raises about $1.2 million a day to help research and practice medicine through its various programs, and makes a point to share findings with other hospitals and medical professionals. Although St. Jude does its own research and, unlike other medical facilities that depend on drug companies for their pharmaceuticals, St. Jude “keeps it in house” by producing its own pharmaceuticals. Nancy Noyes said several of Matthew Noyes’ doctors were enrolled in outreach programs so they could share their knowledge.

“Sometimes people don’t get that there’s a connection [with St. Jude and Maine]. They think St. Jude is in Tennessee and here we have the Maine Cancer Foundation,” she said. “It’s all about thinking globally.” 

For the next four years, treatment and a strong will kept Matthew Noyes living life to its fullest. He was one of the first patients to receive oral chemotherapy, a treatment now widely used, most recently to help Ted Kennedy in his fight with cancer.

“He was like Lance Armstrong,” Nancy Noyes said. “He wouldn’t let it get him down.”

Despite emotional changes and memory loss caused by his operation, Matthew Noyes held a full time job, played in the Lobster Bowl, went on several fishing expeditions with his father and was married last year. 

“He was a very hard worker,” Nancy Noyes said. “We had discussed [marriage] and they made a mature decision. He did everything he wanted to do in life.”

Four years after first walking into St. Jude, Matthew Noyes had a relapse. Nancy Noyes said although some tumors are highly curable with up to an 80 percent survival rate, her son’s tumor – found in less than 1 percent of children – left little for the doctors to do. 

“I had to stop going online and researching what to do,” she said. “I realized there are no survival strategies. I know I already had four years with him but it’s never long enough.”

Matthew Noyes died in April 2008 at age 25, less than a year after he was married and more than six years after first being diagnosed. Nancy Noyes said her experience working with child cancer patients at Boston Children’s Hospital “taught the strength” she needed to help her through her son’s final days.

“No parent ever wants their child to go before them, but he never feared death,” she said. “It’s never easy, there are good and bad days.”

Now the Noyes’ are keeping Matthew Noyes’ memory close as they gear up for the second annual “Cooking For a Cure” event sponsored by the foundation. Nancy Noyes said last year the event – featuring a silent and live auction, comedians, food and music – raised more than $85,000 for St. Jude.

“Maybe we’ll hit $100,000 this year, who knows,” she said. 

In addition to “Cooking For a Cure,” Nancy Noyes said her husband, a practicing dentist in Biddeford, sponsers a “Dentist With A Dream” program when local dentists donate all proceeds from one day’s worth of procedures to St. Jude.

“Patients love coming in on that day because they know where their money is going,” she said. 

This year’s “Cooking For a Cure” is Wednesday, Sept. 10 at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland. Tickets are available for $35 at www.TheNoyesBrainTumorFoundation.com or by calling 282-6185.