A Virginia high school senior diagnosed with leukemia has received an overwhelming amount of support from his community.
Jeremiah Hughes, an 18-year-old high school senior at Riverheads High School, initially tested positive for the coronavirus in September. But further testing in October showed that his actual diagnosis was much more severe, WVIR reported.
On October 6, Hughes was diagnosed with leukemia. Three days later, Hughes was admitted to the University of Virginia Medical Center.
Kate Owens, Hughes’s older sister, described the send-off the community gave him when he went to the hospital.
“Some of the houses in the neighborhood had decorated their porches and mailboxes and cars to send him off,” Owens said.
Hughes is recovering at home now and commuting to the hospital for chemotherapy, but the community support for him has kept growing.
His community has held a prayer vigil outside his house, and a teacher shared pictures of students holding signs in support of him. Community members have made #TeamJerry cookies, t-shirts, hoodies, and bracelets in support of Hughes.
There is even a GoFundMe page for him, which had raised $6,860 out of its $12,500 goal as of Sunday afternoon.
“The love that our community has shown us. It’s crazy,” said Bobbi Hughes, Jeremiah’s mother. “I have family that live all over the country and they’re blown away. They don’t live in towns like ours, like they cannot believe that people are doing the things that they’re doing.”
Although Jeremiah Hughes is at the beginning of a three-year treatment plan, he still plans to go to college next fall.
Other communities have rallied around cancer patients undergoing treatment.
In October, an Ohio community supported around a 29-year-old man diagnosed with leukemia by praying for him and creating a GoFundMe page, which raised $7,380 as of Sunday afternoon.
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