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Published: Tuesday, Mar. 02, 2010 / Updated: Thursday, Mar. 11, 2010 12:04 PM

GRANTING A WISH: FBLA students from Nation Ford High rally around boy fighting cancer

FORT MILL -- 

Students in Future Business Leaders of America at Nation Ford High School have a new project that doesn’t including balancing debits and credits, perfecting speaking skills or developing business plans.

Instead, the FBLA wants to make 9-year-old Johnathan Sumner forget that he has taken more medicine that most adults ever will. The group wants to make the child who loves to build things and play his Wii forget about his thinning hair and fluctuating weight.

They want to help him forget if only for a few days that he’s battling cancer.

Across the Catawba River and more than 25 miles away, a Rock Hill mother struggles to understand why cancer suddenly showed itself in her son less than eight months ago. She wrestles with not being able to fix what ails her youngest child.

“It breaks my heart because I can’t do anything except be there and cuddle and snuggle,” Laura Sumner, 37, said. “It hurts me when he’s in pain. I want to take it away, but there’s nothing I can do except comfort him when he’s sick.”

Back in Fort Mill, the FBLA is hosting Falcon Fest, a benefit community festival for Johnathan.

“It hits very close to home,” Chelsea Jasper, event organizer and Nation Ford senior, said of Johnathan‘s plight. “He’s been diagnosed with cancer. If any of us were in that situation, we’d want to be helped, too.”

The family-friendly event will kick off at noon March 13 in the bus parking lot at Nation Ford, located on A.O. Jones Boulevard off Springfield Pkwy. The festivities include live entertainment, game booths, hay rides and food vendors – but it’s not all fun and games.

The FBLA hopes to collect $6,000 in donations to help grant a wish for Johnathan.

“I want to go to the Mall of America,” Johnathan said.

Nation Ford’s FBLA, with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, plans to grant that wish for Johnathan and his family.

“It’s exciting,” Sumner said. “It’s going to be fun for the whole family. We need a serious vacation to get away from the stress and Johnathan’s illness.”

Johnathan, a third grader at Rock Hill’s Richmond Drive Elementary School whose homebound teacher helps him with school work, has his eyes set on one purchase.

“A four-wheeler!” he said.

That excitement, Jasper said, is a by-product of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“They are trying to give him hope so he can get through this disease,” Jasper, who celebrates her 18th birthday today, said of the non-profit entity.

The foundation grants multiple wishes each year across the Palmetto state and closer to home in Chester, Lancaster and York counties. The goal? Ease the pain and challenges youth experience wrought by cancer and other life-threatening illnesses and diseases.

“It’s very important for these children to step out of the challenge of their medical condition to experience living a day or week like a regular child who is not facing medical challenges,” said Marci Skogen, who with her husband, Les, are Piedmont regional team leaders with Make-A-Wish.

The husband and wife team are excited about granting Johnathan’s wish. With the community’s support, Johnathan and his family are scheduled to leave April 2 for the Mall of America, Marci Skogen said.

“They told me that they are most familiar with the Galleria Mall in Rock Hill,” Skogen said of Johnathan and his family, who could be in for a shock when they get to Mall of America.

“Their jaws are going to drop,” Skogan said. “This family is going to be blown away; And, this is their first plane ride.”

Since September, Johnathan and his family have been consumed with battling cancer and the trip would be a welcomed distraction. However, to date, festival organizers have only raised $300 of the required $6,000. Now, Jasper and Skogen are turning to the community to make the wish possible.

“We want the community to support Make-A-Wish so that we in turn can grant the wish,” Skogen said.

Last year, 137 wishes were granted across the Palmetto state. In 2008, organizers were able to grant 132 statewide wishes, Skogen said. And some of those wishes were granted for those battling life-threatening illnesses who call Chester, Lancaster and York counties home. Ten wishes were granted in York County in 2009. In addition, two wishes each were granted in Lancaster and Chester counties, Skogen said. An upturn is expected this year as organizers have already granted six wishes in York County and two wishes in Lancaster County, she said.

“It’s a real pleasure to enrich someone’s life who faces medical challenges,” Skogen said. “It’s our responsibility to give back.”

Diagnosis

Seven months ago, Johnathan and his family knew nothing of wrestling with cancer. The child with a big heart spent his time building things, drawing and looking at TV. Then sickness waged a war, mom Laura Sumner said.

“He started getting sick, just throwing up,” she explained. “I thought he was eating a bunch of junk food.”

That was August 2009.

Weeks passed, and Johnathan celebrated his birthday Aug. 17 and returned to classes at Richmond Drive when summer break ended. Still, the sickness continued.

“He was telling the teacher he didn’t feel good,” Sumner recalled. “He kept vomiting at school. He would vomit in his sleep at night.” Laura scheduled a trip to Johnathan’s pediatrician.

“His doctor thought maybe he had constipation,” Sumner said.

A week later, the vomiting and another red flag prompted Sumner to take Johnathan to the emergency room at Piedmont Medical Center.

“They were astonished,” she said. “They didn’t know what was wrong. They ran test and test and transported us to Levine Hospital in Charlotte.”

During that trip, a mother wondered.

“I couldn’t make it better,” she said. “I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.”

Around 1 a.m., Johnathan, Sumner and her husband, Gerald, arrived at Levine, where testing continued.

“We were doing test for a couple days,” Sumner said. “We did ultrasounds, CAT scans and MRIs.”

Meanwhile, “He was still getting sick,” she said.

Doctors ordered two bone marrow test and found nothing. After a biopsy, Sumner learned what ailed her son.

“I saw the doctor’s face,” she recalled. He told me that Johnathan had cancer. My heart dropped.”

That was last September. Doctors started an aggressive chemo treatment.

Since then, Johnathan has endured multiple rounds of chemotherapy; he receives two shots in his leg at the same time three times a week. Johnathan, who received a plasma transfusion and more than six blood transfusions, also receives chemo through a port in his chest. From that chemo treatment, Johnathan’s hair is thinning.

“He doesn’t like it coming out,” Sumner said.

And chemo impacted Johnathan’s appetite.

“At first he wasn’t eating,” Sumner said. “He was losing weight a lot.”

But the radiation treatment was the biggest concern.

“The radiation people told me most likely he won’t be able to have children,” she said. “They don’t know what God has in store for him.” As Johnathan battled cancer, a mother could do nothing, save offer comfort and shed tears for a son she couldn’t help.

“He was the one who kept me going,” she said of Johnathan. “I could be crying and he’d tell me, ‘Momma, I’m going to be OK.’”

Forging on

Johnathan will be OK.

“It’s curable,” his mother said. “Doctors said he will grow up to be a man. I’m putting my faith in God.”

Chemo treatment will last three years and, if Johnathan goes into and remains in remission, he will take some chemo treatments at home with routine monitoring until he turns 12.

Still, Sumner has questions.

“I don’t understand how he got it, why he got it,” she said. “I don’t understand why this happened to us.”

But there’s no pity party at the Sumner household. They have faith mixed with hope and Johnathan’s determined fight to get better.

“We’re adapting,” Sumner said. “I don’t like it, but we’re surviving.” Falcon Fest at the Falcons’ nest

The FBLA is hosting Falcon Fest, a benefit for Johnathan Sumner, and hopes to raise $6,000 to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation grant the boy’s wish to go to the Mall of America. It will be held March 13 in the bus parking lot at Nation Ford High School.

Festival tickets for games are 50 cents each; wristbands are $10.

Checks payable to the Make-A-Wish Foundation also can be mailed to Make-A-Wish Foundation, 726C Lowdnes Hill Road, Greenville, SC, 29607 or to festival organizer Chelsea Jasper at 1547 Mary Ellen Drive, Fort Mill, SC, 29708.

Questions? Call Jasper at 493-4838 after 5 p.m. weekdays and anytime during the weekend.