Joshua Conley is 10 years old.
He likes hockey. He likes video games, Bionicles and Star Wars.
He likes school, likes to read and likes to play with his brother, James.
Joshua Conley is 10 years old. And he has cancer.
When he was first diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma, in mid-January, he couldn’t even say it. And his friends and classmates didn’t understand it.
They thought, “Maybe it’s contagious.” Or, “What if I get it.”
But soon they were wondering, “What can I do to help?”
And as Joshua struggled both in and out of the hospital with surgery, followed by a regular schedule of chemotherapy, his classmates, teacher and members of the Standish Parent-Teacher Organization rallied to raise money for his care.
The first part of March, they notified parents of students who attend George E. Jack, Edna Libby and Steep Falls schools of a bunny drive – a sale of chocolate bunnies from the Kathryn Beich Company.
The $2.40 profit from each $5 white or milk chocolate bunny sold would go to Joshua’s medical expenses. And, at last, Joshua’s classmates had found a tangible way to help him.
Soon, parents who had never before taken any school fund-raiser to work were receiving hundreds of orders from their co-workers and the sales began multiplying faster than, well, faster than bunnies.
PTO President Sally Druchniak had originally hoped to make $3,000 on the sale. She said her hands were shaking as she counted up the orders and tears were rolling down her cheeks when she’d finished counting. The bunny sale had raised more than $10,000.
In the meantime, Joshua was busy raising money, too. But not for himself. While he was in the hospital, he participated in a three-day 107.5 Frank FM radiothon to benefit the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. Between his chemo treatments, he shared, on the air, his thoughts about having cancer and about how the treatments made him feel.
At the end of the radiothon, they had raised more than $111,000.
This past Wednesday, the cartons and cartons of chocolate bunnies were delivered to the school gymnasium. Joshua’s teacher, Christine Hesler, his class and Druchniak worked diligently to divide the boxes into the hundreds of orders that needed to be filled. Then the students became messengers, distributing the orders to the correct classrooms.
Sadly, the school learned recently that a girl from Steep Falls has just been diagnosed with leukemia. Because of the overwhelming generosity of the Standish community, the bunny drive made enough to enable the students to donate some of the proceeds to her care, as well. In fact, her family had ordered bunnies to help Joshua before her diagnosis had even been made.
Joshua cancer, lymphoblastic lymphoma, spreads rapidly through the lymphatic system, eventually forming a mass in the chest behind the sternum. Many lymphoma sufferers have difficulty breathing because of the location of the mass.
It was Joshua’s labored breathing that first clued his parents, Steve and Martha Conley, into the fact that something was wrong. When doctors examined him, they discovered he had a giant tumor in his chest that was crushing his airway.
Immediately hospitalized, Joshua was placed on a lung bypass machine and doctors surgically removed about 80 percent of the tumor.
Joshua’s first hospital stay lasted a total of five weeks – a week spent in intensive care and the rest in the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital where he underwent chemotherapy treatments. He received a combination of chemotherapy drugs administered over 24-hour periods – drugs so powerful, that at the end of each 24-hour treatment, other drugs were administered to flush them from Joshua’s body so they wouldn’t harm him.
Naturally the family was shocked by Joshua’s diagnosis. And they’ve had to make major life changes to support him. Steve now works weekends so he can be with Joshua during the week, while Martha stays home on weekends with Joshua.
The family has been overwhelmed by the huge support team at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital and by the encouragement from their large family.
As for the bunny drive, Steve said they were amazed.
“We thought it was a great idea when we were told,” he said, “but we never imagined it would be the success that it was.”
Joshua will undergo two years of treatment, consisting primarily of chemotherapy but also including steroids and radiation. He has a Web site, www.joshuas-journey.com, where visitors can go to send him messages, get an update on his progress or donate to help defray his medical expenses.
Joshua Conley, 10, of Standish sits at his desk at George E. Jack Elementary. Diagnosed with lymphoma in January, Joshua wears a special wolf hat a friend made him to cover his head, which is temporarily bald from chemotherapy treatments.Send questions/comments to the editors.
