The Coshocton County Beacon June 3, 2020 | Page 13

June 3, 2020 The Beacon • 13
A story of faith and family,
as a community helps Nick Franks face lymphoma battle
By Josie Sellers
TheBargainHunter.com
Chili Crossroads Bible Church
volunteers quickly went through
hundreds of pizzas during a fundraiser
for Keene Elementary School graduate
Nick Franks, who is battling classic
Hodgkin lymphoma.
“It’s been awesome,” said Julie
Dearyan, whose husband Neal is the
pastor at the church. “We have probably
gone through 350-400 pizzas so
far.”
Her numbers were from early on
in the fundraiser too, which was held
from 3-7 p.m. on May 27 at the church.
Any donations and all proceeds from
the event went to the Franks family to
help with costs associated with Nick’s
treatment.
Nick’s mother Tanya said he was
diagnosed at the end of January, but
his struggles actually began in October
2019.
“He woke up one day, and his neck
hurt,” she said. “I just thought he slept
on his pillow wrong. He went to school
and was fine, but the next morning it
hurt again. I gave him some Tylenol
and didn’t notice too much, but he said
it hurt to turn his head.”
Nick went to school that day for his
fall harvest party, and his mom came
to help. She was helping in one of his
siblings’ rooms, and when she went to
go check on Nick, she actually ran into
him in the hallway.
“He had to turn his whole body to
look at me, and he had a huge lump
on the side of his neck,” Tanya said.
“I took him to his classroom and said
we were going to leave to go to the
hospital. I got the other boys and called
a family member to watch them.”
The emergency room doctor
thought it might be cat-scratch fever
but wasn’t sure. The doctor spoke with
another physician at Akron Children’s
Hospital, and they decided to give
Nick an antibiotic and told the family
to follow up with their pediatrician on
Monday because it was a Friday. After
seeing their own doctor and switching
antibiotics, the swelling went down.
However, by Christmas break he had
two quarter-size bumps return to his
neck. They returned to the emergency
room and this time knew Nick was not
around a cat.
“The doctor said there was something
funny about his blood work but
told us to follow up with the pediatrician,”
Tanya said. “This happened
again on a Friday, so we had to wait
until Monday.”
This time around the doctor thought
Nick might have mono or he might just
be a kid with lumps. His white blood
cell count was up though, and the family
was starting to be concerned about
lymphoma.
“
When everything
started happening and
people started contacting
us, we discussed
if we wanted to say
anything, but when you
believe in the power of
prayer, you want to get
the word out there for
people to pray.
”
Tanya Franks
An appointment was made to do a
pediatric ultrasound at Cleveland Clinic
Children’s on his spleen and neck to
give the family reassurance.
“We thought we’d go up there
to get it done and be back that day,”
Tanya said. “We started out to the
parking garage and got called to stay
there. We got told on the phone that
they thought it was lymphoma and
to wait on an oncology appointment.
We ended up spending the weekend
there.”
They were released on Saturday
evening and came back on Monday for
a biopsy. Nick is now currently going
through chemotherapy treatment.
“We started out going to Cleveland
every other day, but when the coronavirus
hit, they coordinated it so everyone
didn’t have to go as much,” Tanya
said. “By then they had an idea of what
his blood counts would be and made
sure he didn’t need blood or anything.
So far we’ve been blessed and not
needed blood. He’s had a port put in, a
spinal tap and done chemotherapy, but
the one thing he doesn’t want to have
to do is get blood. He hasn’t had to so
far, and we are very grateful for that.”
Tanya said his treatment is a trial,
and Nick is doing remarkably well
with it.
“He’s kept a very positive attitude,”
Tanya said. “God’s got it, and it’s OK.
We don’t stress, and we don’t think
about it. (Nick) is a very faithful child.
He gets tired, and the further we go, he
is starting to throw up and smells make
him nauseous, but he still tries to keep
up with his siblings. He’s handling it
all very well. The first day in the parking
lot, he did say, ‘Why me?’ But my
husband and I were both upset and
calling our pastor and his wife crying.
Nick hasn’t had a single day though
where he’s been sad or anything. He
says his prayers at night and says a
different thing he’s thankful for each
day.”
In addition to the church fundraiser,
Keene also sold T-shirts to help assist
Nick and his family.
“It’s been overwhelming,” Tanya
said. “Nick isn’t a kid who plays a lot
of sports. He’s very involved at church,
but other than that, he doesn’t know a
lot of people. When everything started
happening and people started contacting
us, we discussed if we wanted to
say anything, but when you believe in
the power of prayer, you want to get
the word out there for people to pray.”
Tanya said a lot of people have
been supportive. “So many people
came forward, from his 4-H club, to
the school, to places I used to work. He
would just randomly go to the mailbox,
and there’d be cards in the mail.
Our church right away started doing
meals, and we foster, so people from
church asked about getting approved
to watch the kids for us. You don’t
Submitted
Nick Franks wanted to help as much as he could with his family’s fundraiser, so
they made pizza dough at home and sent it back to the church.
realize how the little things are a big
deal to someone in a situation like ours.
Just a neighbor calling to say they are
at a store and want to know if we need
anything to having the frozen meals
to come home to after chemo make a
huge difference.”
Nick really wanted to help with the
fundraiser at his church but couldn’t
leave the house. Julie Dearyan suggested
he make posters for the event,
but after doing that, he still wanted to
do more.
“She told us we could make some
pizza dough,” Tanya said. “They sent
the ingredients, and we worked on it
at home. It’s hard not being with your
church family, especially when they
are supporting you so much.”
The family is very appreciative of
everyone’s help.
“I want to give a big thank you
to our whole community for all the
support,” Tanya said. “It’s very humbling.”
Tanya also had a few words of
advice to share with other parents.
“Please go with your gut,” she said. “If
you feel something is going on, push to
get answers.”
Submitted
A pizza fundraiser was held for Nick Franks and his family. Nick was able to help
by making dough for the pizzas at home and creating posters.