A mother's raw emotions laid out in a Facebook post. It's been picked up and shared thousands of times.
You may have seen the photo of her 10-year-old son Drake Medinger. She talked about the struggle, the exhaustion and the sadness of leukemia. The family lived in Omaha last year but moved to Texas. His old school, Sunny Slope Elementary, is organizing a fundraiser to help Drake and his mom Jessica.
"It was almost unrecognizable the picture that was there," Kelsey Nabity cried when she saw the photo of her former student Drake Medinger. "Drake was such a happy, go lucky kid, you would've never known he had cancer unless someone told you, he never showed it."
She and her students at Sunny Slope Elementary celebrated when Drake finished up his leukemia treatments last year in second grade. He and his mom moved to Texas, then the cancer came back.
"When someone you know, someone from your community is afflicted with an illness like this then it certainly does impact you a little more heavily, that you want to be involved," said 5th grade teacher Kim West.
The Sunny Slope Elementary family decided to change a pre-scheduled fundraiser to benefit Drake. On Thursday, the Raising Cane's at 129th and Maple will donate 15 percent of proceeds to the Medingers. "We want to allow the family to focus on getting Drake healthy and we want Drake to focus on getting healthy and being healthy," West said.
The Facebook post is raw. Mom Jessica wrote, in part, "this is having your son sleep with you at night because he is afraid of something happening and being alone, and by something I mean dying."
"We all go through ups and downs and right now this family is in a down, and I think anyone will take the opportunity to help someone out," said Nabity.
The photo shows the world what cancer looks like. Omaha is showing Drake and Jessica what support looks like.
If you cannot give money, Drake's mother had another request. Drake has needed quite a few blood transfusions. She suggested people wanting to help cancer patients can donate blood at the Red Cross at 132nd and Dodge.
