The Lake City Secondary School Columneetza Campus gymnasium will be filled with song and comedy Tuesday evening as école Nesika Elementary School students raise funds for two of their peers who are fighting life threatening illnesses.
Internationally known singer/songwriter and puppeteer Norman Foote is joining Nesika students in presenting the concert which starts at 7 p.m. April 11 with doors opening at 6:15 p.m., said Principal Yvonne Davis.
The Nesika students will be performing as Foote’s backup singers to raise funds for their fellow students, Chase Lamont, 11, and Summer Singleton, 6.
Chase was diagnosed with liver cancer when he was age six and in Grade 1.
He fought and beat the cancer after six months of treatment and since then has been the poster child for COPS for Cancer in Williams Lake as well as fundraising endeavours for Ronald McDonald House and other cancer organizations.
Unfortunately in August 2016 while on a family picnic in Lac La Hache Chase suffered a stroke, from which his family said he is “bound and determined” to recover, reports Davis after talking with his mother Shanna Stangoe.
With the support of family and friends and his mother by his side, Davis said Chase has been working hard on his recovery at Children’s Hospital and Sunny Hill Rehabilitation Centre in Vancouver, while living at Ronald McDonald House.
“His days are spent working hard at physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, recreational therapy and schooling,” Davis said. “Chase is starting to get some speech back and has some ability to take steps in a pool.”
She said he is beginning to eat and loved the taste of a Starbucks’ brownie.
“We are very excited to have Chase back at Nesika in the future, as he hopes to be back in Williams Lake in May,” Davis said.
Summer Singleton is fighting acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the same type of cancer her older brother, Braidon, fought and beat 10 years ago.
Last fall Summer was complaining about aching bones and had trouble lifting her shoulders. At the insistence of her mother Jenn, Summer was sent to a specialist who diagnosed her with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Summer was diagnosed Jan. 24 and began chemotherapy treatment at Children’s Hospital Jan 29.
The treatment regimen will be a two and a half year process.
Summer and Jenn stayed at Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House for the first intensive rounds of chemotherapy, returning to Williams Lake the first week in March.
Since then Jenn and Summer have made the two-day trip to Vancouver and back home once a week for Summer to have her chemotherapy treatments.
“We feel it is better for Summer to be home around her brothers and family,” Jenn says. “She is doing well and in good spirits.”
The chemotherapy reduces Summer’s blood counts, lowering her immune system, so she is not able to go to school where there is a greater risk of infection. But Jenn says Summer has been able to have some play dates when her friends are not sick and is working on her Grade 1 studies at home with the help of her teachers at Nesika and the GROW Centre.
Blood clots are a side effect of the chemotherapy treatment for which Summer must also take medication every 12 hours.
At the end of May, Summer and Jenn will move back to Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver for another eight-week round of intensive chemotherapy treatment during which doctors will monitor her treatments closely.
Jenn said Summer will have her blood tested at Cariboo Memorial Hospital Tuesday morning and if her blood counts are high enough she will be able to wear a mask and stand at the back of the gymnasium to watch the Norman Foote concert Tuesday evening.
“Nesika is such a supportive school,” Jenn said in thanking the school for hosting the fundraising concert. She said Principal Davis even visited Summer when she was in hospital in Vancouver.
Tickets for the Norman Foote concert are $10 each. The school has sold 200 advance tickets and there will be tickets at the door, Davis said.
Davis said people have also made enquiries about making donations for the families outside of the concert. She said people wanting to help the families can also make donations at école Nesika Elementary School by calling 250-398-7192.