METAIRIE, La. — A local teenager is trying to make a difference in the fight against cancer.
And it all started when Lucy Naquin saw her parents, and a friend's parents, go through a difficult time supporting a child diagnosed with cancer.
Now Naquin has rallied many others her age, to join her cause.
The diagnosis of cancer can knock a family to its knees, especially if it is in a child.
And that is part of our story, but so is just how remarkable teenagers can be when they join forces for good.
Leilani and Earl Blake Wisecarver bicker and go at it like so many siblings. It's welcome noise to mom Marissa, especially after what the family went through four years ago.
“It was devastating and terrifying, and it was just something any parent would not want to hear,” said their mother Marissa Wisecarver.
At the age of five, a blood test revealed that the bruising on Earl Blake was from blood cancer, a type of leukemia. There was a couple of years of steroids, a port, pills, and lumbar punctures so chemo could be infused into his spine. Earl Blake remembers the nausea, and feeling different from his friends who had hair.
“I remember when I was like bald in like the summertime, and I had to wear a beanie, because I was like scared to show them that I was like bald,” Earl Blake Wisecarver, 9, said about being around his friends. “I would just say the cancer did it, and the medicine did it.”
“I prayed for Blake to get better, and like in religion we say prayers before, and everybody raised hands for my brother,” his sister Leilani Wisecarver,11, said.
Now the two siblings, and some off their classmates at St. Christopher School have joined Army for a Cause. It was started by a long-time family friend who is only 16 years old.
“I was like devastated. I didn't know, I didn't know what to do. It was terrifying,” said Lucy Naquin, 16, a junior at Archbishop Chapelle High School.
Lucy has put together a team of high school students at Chapelle, and other schools, to join in a seven-week challange to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She was inspired last year at the ceremony when Earl Blake won its Honored Hero of the Year, and she met high schoolers in the Student Visionaries of the Year program. So, now she is competing against other school teams to raise the most.
“We're supporting other families who were affected like Earl Blake was, and we're working to make sure that they don't have to go through the same difficulties that he did,” said Naquin.
“She's amazing, It's, I'm so proud of her. It's amazing. She saw what we went through, and will now help others,” said Marissa.
Earl Blake is now cancer free.
Here's how you can help. You, or businesses, can make donations of funds, or items to auction.
There is a blood drive Saturday, January 28, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the St. Christopher gym in Metairie. To donate blood you have to be 17 or older and weigh at least 110lbs., or 16 and weigh 130lbs. with parental permission.
To donate items or funds:
Lucy’s Instagram page if you are on the platform:
St. Christopher School in Metairie: