Teacher Launches Effort To Raise Money For Student's Cancer Treatment
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A teacher at an elementary school near Washington Park is leading the efforts to raise money tomorrow for a 6th grade girl who has Stage 4 cancer.
"She has a tumor that's sitting on her spine. It's attached itself to her muscle," said Mary Thornton, whose student, 12-year-old Madison Booker, has neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that strikes children.
Madison had a hard time making it to school and when she's there, she's in pain, Thornton says.
"When she's here she's really happy. The kids see and... (say), 'Oh it's you! I'm so sorry you have cancer.'
"And she'll tell them, 'Don't be sorry for me. Just learn about it.'
"That's what she'll say."
Thornton says she met Madison at the beginning of the school year. And she said she felt compelled to help.
"I guess me being a mom - being a teacher - I just really took it personal."
Thornton says she hopes a fundraising walk near the school - Beasley Academic Center - will help with some of the costs of Madison's experimental drug therapy, which she says can cost hundreds of dollars per dose.