Junious Smith III recovers in his Duke University Medical Center bed following major brain surgery on May 23. Friends and fans of the popular sportswriter are asked to donate to his cause, if it’s possible. (Photo courtesy: The Smith family at GoFundMe.com)

By Bryan Hanks
Special to Neuse News

A man who has spent much of his adult life dedicated to covering prep sports and promoting young student-athletes in our area needs our help, Eastern North Carolina.

Junious Smith III — a former sports editor of The Free Press, former sports reporter for Neuse News and the owner, editor and founder of ENCMoments.com (a popular local prep sports website) — had massive brain surgery on May 23 at Duke University Medical Center in Durham. The surgery was performed to remove a mass in his brain; it succeeded in taking out 70 percent of the tumor.

Due to the tumor — which Smith and his family didn’t know he had until only a week before the surgery — he had been struggling with migraine headaches, severe fatigue, loss of equilibrium and other serious maladies for several weeks.

The weekend of May 14, Smith’s father took his son to two Fayetteville-area hospital on three separate occasions before doctors discovered a swelling in his brain on a CT scan. He was immediately transported to Duke and the surgery was subsequently scheduled.

Following the five-and-a-half hour surgery, Smith was in the Duke Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit until last week, when he was moved to a “step-down” room.

The recovery has been slow for Smith, but there have been several positive moments, as documented by his family on the popular web-based fundraising platform, GoFundMe. In the past week, he has walked, pulled on his own socks and watched some of his beloved L.A. Rams football team on a computer.

In their message on Smith’s GoFundMe page, his parents ask the public to pray for their son and to financially aid Junious in his time of need, if it’s possible.

“(We) humbly solicit your assistance in raising funds to help cover his mounting medical bills, purchase basic and necessary supplies and (the) cost of personal and individualized home health care and continued physical therapy upon his release from the hospital,” the message reads.

To donate to Smith, visit GoFundMe.com and search “Junious Smith III.” As of Thursday night, more than $18,000 had been raised for Smith on nearly 175 individual donations.