Friends reach out to help teen

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November 19, 2009

Community shows support for Pinkerton freshman suffering from leukemia

By Julie Huss

DERRY — Caroline Fleming remembers spending fun times with her friend, Janelle James, when the pair attended Gilbert H. Hood Middle School together.

The two young girls loved many of the same things including singing, dancing, and doing well in school. Now Fleming is reaching out to help her friend through some tough times.

James, 14, is a freshman at Pinkerton Academy and was diagnosed this past July with Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia and is currently undergoing treatment at Boston's Children's Hospital. For Fleming, it's now time to offer help to her good friend as she deals with life's twists and turns.

Fleming, also a Pinkerton freshman, along with her older sister, Meredith, are planning to sell handcrafted bookmarks to help support James and her family through this tough time. The bookmarks, in either silver or gold finish, will be available for sale during this Saturday's holiday fair at Derry Village Elementary School. Each bookmark has a tiny apple charm dangling from the end.

"She requested an apple," Caroline Fleming said of the bookmarks, adding she wanted to do something to help the James family as the teen faces what lies ahead.

And the apple symbol is so special, she added, as Janelle James once played Snow White in a middle school production of "Into the Woods."

For Meredith Fleming, seeing another young girl going through cancer treatment holds a personal spot in her heart. She herself is a cancer survivor, having battled a brain tumor when she was a very young girl.

"We want to help as much as we can," Meredith said. "Everyone always helped me. It's nice for the community to come together." Janelle James' church and community hope to help the teen and her family in the search for a bone marrow match. Drives to find a perfect match have been hosted by area churches. So far, no suitable donor has been found for the future transplant. Her family and siblings proved no match.

In a special appeal letter, David James described his youngest child as his "baby girl" with a strong life force and positive outlook on life and her current illness. Although the chemotherapy treatment makes her weak, she is mature and ready to face what happens.

"The only times she has cried thus far was when the doctors told her that she would lose her hair, and again when they told her that she would never be able to have children," David James wrote. "She is very mature and has an incredibly positive attitude."

For the Fleming sisters, selling their bookmarks this Saturday is just a small way they can reach out and help this family. The pair hopes to sell about 100 bookmarks to help the James family. The Derry Village holiday fair runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday at the school.

The search goes on for a suitable bone marrow match for James with more drives scheduled including an event at St. Matthew's Parish in Windham on Thursday, Nov. 19 from 4 to 8 p.m. and another at St. Kathryn's Parish in Hudson on Dec. 9 from 5 to 8 p.m. Visit online at www.janellejames.org for information on events and ways to help.