East Central HS fighting childhood cancer following deaths of three students
SAN ANTONIO - More than a year after losing three students in three months to cancer, East Central High School has started a new campaign to help fight childhood cancer.
The student-led Go for Gold campaign kicked off Tuesday, raising money and awareness through the end of the September, which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
"There's just not as much of an emphasis placed on childhood cancers as we think there should be," said East Central High School Principal Shane McKay. "(This campaign) helps to go to support not just research, but to support families."
Students spent Tuesday afternoon placing gold ribbons around trees, hanging gold posters in hallways, and placing donation buckets and signs around campus. The efforts saw football players, spirit groups, and student council leaders teaming up with members of the JROTC, Future Farmers of America, National Honor Society and more.
"Kids really pulled together and really believe in each other and look out for each other," said McKay.
But perhaps most poignantly, Tuesday saw the installation of memorial plaques in front of three trees dedicated to three former students who passed away from cancer.
"Any time their parents or family want to come by and see, they'll always know that the tree is there," said McKay.
The families of two of those students were in attendance for the dedication.
"Some days it seems like yesterday," said Jessica Heras, who lost her son Michael in May of 2018. "Some days it seems like it's been a very long time."
"It doesn't get better," said Loretta Martinez, who lost her son Joey in June of 2018. "It’s just like a dream. I wake up every day wanting him to be there."
Michael Heras, 18, Joey Natividad, 17, and Robert Stansbury, 17, were all diagnosed with different types of cancer at different times.
"Unfortunately, they all passed within the same six weeks of each other," said McKay.
Heras passed on May 25th, 2018, Natividad passed on June 6th, 2018, and Stansbury passed on July 3rd, 2018.
"My child was healthy for 17 years," said Joey's mother Loretta Martinez. "17 years. And then boom. Cancer."
Joey passed away just seven months after being diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma (muscle cancer).
"His oncologist's team had told me that there wasn't a chance he was going to survive this," said Loretta. "I kept pushing and pushing and pushing. Something is wrong with my son. Something is terribly wrong with my son."
Michael, the oldest of the three students, was a senior at East Central. He passed away two years after being diagnosed with Osteosarcoma (bone cancer.) "He ran out of options really fast," said his mother Jessica. "There was no sign until it was too late. After he passed away, that's when we learned that his cancer was chemo-resistant, so no amount of chemo was going to help him. It was going to continue to progress."
Robert Stansbury, a 17-year-old junior at East Central, passed away from Acute Myeloid Leukemia after originally being diagnosed with MDS (Myelodysplastic syndromes) at the age of 15.
"He never showed any fear," said Robert's mother Andrea Stansbury. "I asked him several times if he was scared or worried and he always told me no."
East Central hopes to raise at least $2,000 for childhood cancer by the end of the month. You can learn more by visiting the school's fundraising page on the website for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.
The fundraising efforts will conclude with a Gold Out during the school's Sept. 27th football game against New Braunfels High School, with the stadium decked out in gold and spectators encouraged to wear gold. The game will also feature a tent for bone marrow registration. McKay said the school plans to make this a yearly tradition, raising money every September.