Sacramento State Student's Breast Cancer Tribute To Mom Turning Heads On Campus

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A statement of breast cancer support is turning heads on Sacramento State's campus. As people splash pink everywhere for breast cancer awareness, one student is doing more to put a face on the movement.

Freshman Austin Smith stays connected with his mom on Skype. He has pictures of her plastered around his Sacramento State dorm room.

But the Red Bluff native renews a special bond with his mom, Marlene White, ever October.

"I just came home one day with my head shaved and she was like 'What is this?'" he said.

For the past three Octobers, Austin has shaved "Mom" into one side of his head, along with a ribbon and the number on the other side representing how many years Marlene has been cancer-free.

"It's a good reminder that it did happen," he said.

He was 9 when his mom was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and told she had six months to live.

"My parents were divorced so I only saw her when she wasn't suffering from chemo," he said. "So for us it was really—we didn't notice how bad it really was."

Marlene says she lived a double life.

"It was pretty hard because I had to kind of pretend that everything was going to be OK, but yet at the same time, make arrangements for what I would do with my children and where they would go," she said.

"The idea of not having a mom anymore never occurred to me until we talked about it later," he said.

Somehow, she survived.

So as a high-schooler, he fulfilled a promise he made, but didn't keep, to his mom at 9 years old—to shave his head in support of her.

"How many people Austin has touched by doing this, and seeing that, it's just amazing," she said.

He hopes his haircut puts a face on the breast cancer awareness movement, but he says he really does it for the attention of just one person: Mom.

"It's really fun for me because if she didn't appreciate it as much, I don't know if I would do it," he said.

She plans to keep shaving the tribute to his mom in his hair at least through college.