Woodland student begins fight against cancer again
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The community of Graham and Woodland Elementary, gathered on Friday, Feb. 14 to pray for James Steege. James is a student at Woodland who was recently diagnosed with cancer for the second time. Friends and community members gathered to pray for Steege and his family prior to the start of school. Leader photo by Madalyn Heimann -
Classmates of James spoke about how great of a person James is and how they are confident he will beat cancer again. Leader photo by Madalyn Heimann
He was preparing for port removal and his last chemotherapy, but for James Steege his fight against Acute B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia has begun again.
In early 2018, Steege was diagnosed with cancer and fought it hard over the past few years. In March of 2019, The Graham Leader reported on the celebration for his last port chemotherapy as his battle seemed to be coming to an end.
According to James’ Journey GoFundMe, on Feb. 8 he was taken to Cook Children’s with a high fever. His blood count was high and his family was told his cancer was back. For the Steege family, they were just preparing for his port removal and last chemotherapy treatment coming up, but are now preparing for a second fight with cancer.
On Feb. 11 James’ Journey was updated stating that his white blood cell count was rising and that doctors believed this was a full relapse. With his count being high, he was put on chemotherapy and will be in the hospital for a month.
He is on steroids and according to the latest update on Feb. 12, he is in severe pain.
With all of this seemingly happening overnight, the Steege family and friends were reaching out to the community of Graham for prayers. People began to collect cards and other items to be given to James as he began another round of treatment last week.
Woodland Elementary, where James attends, held a prayer gathering on Friday, Feb. 14 to lift James and his family up in prayer.
For those that would like to donate, James’ Journey has been opened once again to collect funds to help the Steege through his second fight. Go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/james-jounrney to donate.
