Third Place Feature Story, 2015
Originally Published Sept. 4, 2015
LeROY ― A cancer diagnosis is invariably accompanied by the unknown.
There’s unknown medical costs, unknown timelines for recovery, unknown severity of the tumor or tumors, and unknown pain and suffering to name a few.
But such a diagnosis can also lead to unknown ― or at least untapped ― powers of personal and community strength, perseverance and compassion.
So was the case when LeRoy sophomore Tommy Pruett and his family found out in early July that he was battling a stage three brain tumor.
Currently, Tommy faces radiation therapy four times a week and he takes a chemotherapy pill to combat his aggressive tumor.
He’s on seizure medication and steroids, and he’s lost some movement in his right hand. But to his family and friends, he’s still the same old Tommy.
“If it wasn’t for Tommy, we’d all be broken apart by this,” Tomm’s mother Dawn Pruett said. “He’s upbeat, he’s positive and he says he knows he’s going to get through it.”
Dawn said Tommy still jokes and laughs as he always has despite some increased fatigue. His tumor is one step away from the most aggressive on a scale from one to four. But the scale of severity doesn’t matter to Tommy.
“He’s bound and determined that he’s going to beat this,” Dawn said.
Tommy showed his strength as the LeRoy community once again demonstrated theirs Friday night before the team’s first football game.
The sophomore was named a team captain for the game, and he took the field hand in hand with the fellow LHS captains for the coin toss.
“He didn’t know he was going to be out there for the coin toss,” Dawn Pruett said. “He thought that was pretty cool.”
Tommy and family stuck around to the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, fielding well wishes and pats on the back from countless friends and community members.
And despite the Panther loss to the visiting Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Falcons, coach BJ Zeleznik said the evening was bigger than football.
“Obviously something like this always puts things in perspective on a night like tonight,” Zeleznik said. “There’s bigger things. There’s bigger battles to fight than high school athletics.”
Still, Zeleznik said the LeRoy football family provides a support structure.
“Now, the beauty of high school athletics is it teaches you strength of emotion and physical strength so if you do run into these things, you hopefully have learned some things that will help you deal with it,” he said.
The players showed they have learned quite a bit as they invited Tommy to join them for the coin toss. Already their helmets were adorned with a sticker showing Pruett’s number 68.
For Dawn, her husband Joe, Tommy and his older sister Amanda, the positive vibes from Tommy’s teammates and the people of LeRoy and surrounding areas have been a theme since Tommy’s diagnosis.
“As soon as I told people that Tommy had a stage three brain tumor, it’s like the town kicked into gear,” Dawn said.
Friends and classmates have organized car washes, t-shirt sales and other fundraisers to raise support, both monetarily and emotionally for the Pruett family. At the IGA where Dawn is employed, there have been cook-outs and bake sales with thousands of dollars raised.
Almost every day, Pruett said she sees another check, gas card or gift certificate show up in her mail box.
“I couldn’t be happier with what they’ve done for me at the IGA,” she said.
Dawn said the kindness of the community was overwhelming, although for many year’s she has witnessed it first-hand. As an organizer of the Wounded Warrior Project’s Fallen Heroes Wall visit to LeRoy in the recent past, she has helped rally LeRoyans in an effort to give back to servicemen.
But being on the receiving end of the community’s generosity was a new feeling altogether.
“It’s hard when you’ve been giving for so long to all the sudden be on the other end of it,” she said. “But I had to tell myself that these people are standing up and saying ‘we’re giving because we care.’ We’ve never asked for any of it, but it’s been amazing.”
Tommy still has one more week of his current radiation therapy and chemo medication. After that, there will be a four-week treatment-free period where the size of the tumor will be re-evaluated. During that free period, the Pruetts will aim at a life of normalcy. Tommy is headed back to school on Wednesday and Dawn will go back to work while they await test results.
“We’re on a 12-month plan but most of those months are unknown,” Dawn said. “We’re taking it day by day. Some days are good, some are bad.”
There will be frequent trips to Peoria at OSF St. Joseph’s and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital for his various treatments. And, of course, there will be plenty more unknowns.
But there will also be fun and games.
On Thursday, Tommy and a friend will travel with family to Chicago to catch the Bears’ preseason game. And there will assuredly be more texts, well wishes and donations from friends, family and strangers.
Tommy will continue to fight, but he won’t be fighting alone.
“The community has been unbelievable,” Dawn said. “I don’t know if I would rather be anywhere but here.”
Updates about Tommy’s condition and ways to help the Pruetts can be found on the “Team Tommy” Facebook page, as well as on Dawn’s page at Dawn Bagwell Pruett.