Church holds prom, friends run Ragnar for teen with cancer

Church holds prom, friends run Ragnar for teen with cancer

(Courtesy of Ruth Jones)


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CLEARFIELD — Community members and friends of a Utah teen with cancer are helping him make the most of the time he has left.

In April, 16-year-old Joshua Jones was diagnosed with a brain tumor for the second time in his life. There’s no guarantee that the painful, debilitating treatment will help him, and Josh wants to enjoy the time he has left, according to his mother, Ruth Jones. They will not be treating the stage 4 cancer.

It sounds like he is enjoying his time. Since he won’t be able to attend his own prom, his church held a prom for him. He and his date were crowned prom king and queen, and the band GENTRI played a concert for Josh during the dance. One of his biggest regrets is that he was never able to get a driver’s license, and his mom didn’t want him to have to go to “prom” with her, so she hired a limousine to drive him and his friends to the dance, she said.

“There were hundreds of kids there that came for him,” Ruth Jones said.

At the recent Wasatch Back Ragnar, a group of the Jones family’s friends ran for Josh in superhero costumes. Ruth Jones said they met them at the finish line and the team pushed Josh in his wheelchair up to it, and his parents lifted him up so he could walk across the finish line with the team.

“He’s declining some now, so he has a hard time connecting, his brain is not connecting with everything well,” Ruth Jones said. “But when he stood up and crossed that finish line, he knew and he smiled. So it was pretty neat for him, he had a lot of fun.”

(Photo: Courtesy of Ruth Jones)
(Photo: Courtesy of Ruth Jones)

Josh has also been able to ride in a fire truck at Hill Air Force Base and operate a water cannon to help put out a simulated fire, his mom said. “This Friday, Hill Air Force Base has invited him back, because the Thunderbirds are going to be there on Saturday for the air show,” Ruth Jones said. “And so they’ve invited him for a private tour of the flight area and … he’s going to get to use a flight simulator and then see the Thunderbirds. I think they do their practice run on Friday and they have some VIPs that come to that, and he’s been invited to that as well.”

A GoFundMe account* was set up for the Jones family. To donate, visit the website.

*KSL.com does not assure that the monies deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.

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