October 19, 2019 at 07:08AM
As she prepared to head to Denver to receive another round of cancer treatment, the Hemingford Bobcat volleyball team surprised Brenda Davies with a special send off for good luck. While wearing their newly designed "Brenda Strong" shirts, the team lined up in the Red Zone and invited other high school students and faculty to join in. The shirts state "Life is tough but so are you #BrendaStrong" and feature the color lime green representing the type of cancer Davies has.
Superintendent Charles Isom was put in charge of pulling Davies out of class. She was welcomed to the student filled Red Zone with cheers. The tears welled up in her eyes as she made her way through the volleyball team, hugging each player.
The team presented Davies with a framed photograph that Kim Haas had taken of the team forming a cancer ribbon. Each player also signed the picture to make it that much more special.
"I'm their biggest cheerleader," said Davies as she fought back the tears.
"The volleyball team would like to give a huge thank you to Brenda Davies," said HHS Senior Makenzy Chancellor as she spoke on behalf of the team. "She had driven bus for us to all our games, kept the score book and cheered us on silently from the score table, and has always been our biggest supporter. It is now our turn to support you."
"You are such a huge part of our community and we could all be inspired by your kind heart, generosity, and determination," she continued to say. Thank you for everything you do and keep on fighting!"
The crowd cheered as Davies emotionally said, "This is the most wonderful community with the most supportive people in the whole world."
The next day, Davies traveled to Denver where she would have to stay for a little over a month. On Monday, her doctors began the CAR T-cell therapy process to treat the cancer that was found in the lining of her stomach in July or 2018. That type of cancer is medically called MALT (mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue) lymphoma.
For the CAR T-cell therapy, her blood was drawn and the T-cells were removed from the blood. The gene for CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) is then inserted into the T-cells. The lab then grows millions of CAR T-cell. Those cells are then infused into the patient and the CAR T-cells bind to the cancer cells and kill them.
They attempted the CAR T-cell therapy last month.
"They took the lymphocytes out in September but they didn't respond to the therapy so they are going to have to do that procedure again," said her daughter in-law Jessica Davies.
"Out of all the things I've done with this that was by far the worst," Brenda said.
Her treatment began with radiation and then chemo starting in early 2019.
"It killed some of it but what was in there was really aggressive so they did intensive chemo," said Jessica. "When she had the initial ct-scan it showed that the cancer was responding but when they did this last one it had not. So they are trying this other treatment."
"Keep your energy high for her," added Jessica. "She's too good to have to deal with this. We need to get her better."
*EDITORS NOTE- All of the proceeds from the Pink Out ads will be donated to Brenda to financially assist her as she battles cancer. There's also an account set up for Brenda at Hemingford Credit Union if you are interested in donating monetary funds to Brenda
As she prepared to head to Denver to receive another round of cancer treatment, the Hemingford Bobcat volleyball team surprised Brenda Davies with a special send off for good luck. While wearing their newly designed "Brenda Strong" shirts, the team lined up in the Red Zone and invited other high school students and faculty to join in. The shirts state "Life is tough but so are you #BrendaStrong" and feature the color lime green representing the type of cancer Davies has.
Superintendent Charles Isom was put in charge of pulling Davies out of class. She was welcomed to the student filled Red Zone with cheers. The tears welled up in her eyes as she made her way through the volleyball team, hugging each player.
The team presented Davies with a framed photograph that Kim Haas had taken of the team forming a cancer ribbon. Each player also signed the picture to make it that much more special.
"I'm their biggest cheerleader," said Davies as she fought back the tears.
"The volleyball team would like to give a huge thank you to Brenda Davies," said HHS Senior Makenzy Chancellor as she spoke on behalf of the team. "She had driven bus for us to all our games, kept the score book and cheered us on silently from the score table, and has always been our biggest supporter. It is now our turn to support you."
"You are such a huge part of our community and we could all be inspired by your kind heart, generosity, and determination," she continued to say. Thank you for everything you do and keep on fighting!"
The crowd cheered as Davies emotionally said, "This is the most wonderful community with the most supportive people in the whole world."
The next day, Davies traveled to Denver where she would have to stay for a little over a month. On Monday, her doctors began the CAR T-cell therapy process to treat the cancer that was found in the lining of her stomach in July or 2018. That type of cancer is medically called MALT (mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue) lymphoma.
For the CAR T-cell therapy, her blood was drawn and the T-cells were removed from the blood. The gene for CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) is then inserted into the T-cells. The lab then grows millions of CAR T-cell. Those cells are then infused into the patient and the CAR T-cells bind to the cancer cells and kill them.
They attempted the CAR T-cell therapy last month.
"They took the lymphocytes out in September but they didn't respond to the therapy so they are going to have to do that procedure again," said her daughter in-law Jessica Davies.
"Out of all the things I've done with this that was by far the worst," Brenda said.
Her treatment began with radiation and then chemo starting in early 2019.
"It killed some of it but what was in there was really aggressive so they did intensive chemo," said Jessica. "When she had the initial ct-scan it showed that the cancer was responding but when they did this last one it had not. So they are trying this other treatment."
"Keep your energy high for her," added Jessica. "She's too good to have to deal with this. We need to get her better."
*EDITORS NOTE- All of the proceeds from the Pink Out ads will be donated to Brenda to financially assist her as she battles cancer. There's also an account set up for Brenda at Hemingford Credit Union if you are interested in donating monetary funds to Brenda