VIENNA, Ga. — Before students head home for the holidays, the Dooly County Bobcats had their classmates in mind Friday morning.
Principal Jerry Sanders says the students have been through obstacles as a whole, including losing a classmate, Emil "Bubba" Davis, two years ago, to cancer.
"We have a student with lupus, a student with Type 1 diabetes, a student that has another form of cancer in his nostrils, several different illnesses," says Sanders.
This time, students got to talk about their personal experiences with chronic illnesses, like senior Armarion Almond, who has stage 2 nasal cancer.
"I found out I had it when I was in ninth grade. My nose was bleeding a lot, and it was little lumps or masses in my nose, they found out it was nasal polyps," he says.
It began to spread quickly to his heart and lungs, and Almond needed two surgeries to start. Now, he gets at-home chemotherapy treatments once a week.
Almond says, "I stick the tube in my nostrils so the medicine can come in and treat the masses that are around."
His classmate, Carlie Wilson, was diagnosed in October with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"Because of her immune system being so low at this time, we don't want her to socialize with others because of the germ impact it can have on her body," says her mother, Cecilia Lester-Law.
As Carlie continues her treatments, the school raised $500 to give to her mother towards medical costs. Lester-Law, says it will help.
"It does get overwhelming having to travel to Atlanta every two weeks, so the gas expense, the meals," she lists.
Lester-Law says the school has been supportive throughout this process and the check is just proof of that.
Lester-Law says her daughter has an upcoming doctor's appointment to find out the next course of treatment for her disease.
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