QueenEsta Lowe is finished with her treatment for brain cancer and stay at St. Jude’s. After being away for more than six weeks, she’s ready to be with friends again,

“I wanted to come back,” Lowe said. “Being back home has been a little strange. When I came back to school for the first time it was really overwhelming. I was so happy. I like hugs, so I got a lot of hugs.”

Despite being drained physically by the radiation treatment, her passion for cheerleading hasn’t been dimmed.

“I’m trying out for cheerleading right now — that’s one of the reasons I wanted to come back. I know I have the strength. I know I can get it back this summer,” Lowe said.

The malignant brain tumor was a surprise.

“You know, when you see the commercials for cancer on television — I never thought that’d be me. I never thought I would have cancer.

“When I first found out I had a tumor, I thought I would just have surgery and be back in January, but then we got a call that they found cancer cells so that’s when I started treatment.

“I stayed in the Ronald McDonald House. It was really depressing to see everyone there. I wanted to help them ...but my mom would tell me that I had to help myself first.”

Treatment left Lowe tired, weak and without an appetite.

“When you go through medication and radiation you lose your taste buds so food tastes strange and you lose weight,” she said. Six weeks of radiation has finally ended leaving her now to take pills for about two years and have check-ups at St. Jude’s every three months.

Others would consider Lowe’s condition a curse, but she considers it a blessing.

“I find ways to tough this out through strong faith, believing in God and reading the Bible.

“I was just really blessed with hope and faith.

“That gave me the strength to make it through.”



Wesley James has been going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., for treatment for nasal cancer.

“After I had surgery on my neck to get my lymph node removed, that’s when I found out I had cancer,” James said. “We came straight to St. Jude’s.”

The cancer is a very rare form in which some cases the patient loses one’s nose. James has been fortunate in his case. When the cancer was developing, others at school seemed to notice a change, including James’s football coach, Gary Hurst.

“We saw some things that just weren’t him,” Hurst said. “We knew something was wrong.”

Despite the challenges, however, James has remained upbeat. Fellow football player Matt Swan has been one to notice.

“Wes was in P.E. after he came back from Tennessee and he was always smiling. He had a great personality,” Swan said. “It didn’t seem like it affected him.”

Swan, along with the rest of the student body, raised money for the benefit of the two students with cancer through Glendale Idol; for James it came as a surprise.

“I kind of thought it was a joke; I wasn’t sure that people would actually do that,” James said. “It makes me know that people care.”

Not going to school, he said, has made life quite mundane.

“It’s been really boring. There’s no one to talk to and there’s not a lot to do,” he said. “I pretty much just spent time at the hospital. It’s kind of depressing… there’s a bunch of little sick kids.”

Being finished with his treatment and ready to get back into the swing of things, James is looking forward to participating in Relay for Life May 3. The football team is also ready for him to return, hoping he’ll play next year.

“We just hope that he beats this battle of cancer just like he’d be playing a game… to win,” Hurst said.