Sparkman Middle School student battling rare cancer
MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — Jeramyh Williams is your typical middle school boy, who loves football and basketball and plays in the band.
And of course he has a favorite superhero.
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“Marvel, but I don’t really have a favorite… oh yeah, iron man,” Jeramyh said.
A few months into his sixth grade year at Sparkman Middle, Jeramyh’s mother Tiana Williams started to notice something wasn’t right.
They first went to the doctor after Jeramyh said the right side of his face had gone numb. From there, he started to lose his balance, became dizzy and his health kept declining.
“The news just kept getting worse and worse from there. My biggest fear that morning was based on his symptoms, and him being diagnosed with bells palsy, is that he could of have some type of stroke and I was not prepared for to hear the news that I got that day,” Tiana said.
On, December 4, 2023, Jeramyh was diagnosed with DIPG, which is an aggressive and rare form of cancer that forms in the brain stem.
“There was no type of surgery available for this type of tumor, and the location of it was very serious, and it being stem cells it controls everything and one thing i know that they kept mentioning was including breathing,” Tiana said.
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Originally, one of the doctors Tiana and Jeramyh visited told them to see a psychiatrist, not realizing the severity of Jeramyh’s conditions.
“She didn’t believe him, and also it just really hurts because the doctors, you know, they say ‘well even if we would have found out two months ago, it wouldn’t change the prognosis.’ And I understand that, but with how aggressive this brain cancer is – those two months could have most definitely made a difference when the diagnosis is DIPG stage 4, and the tumor had already spread to the right side of his brain,” Tiana explained.
Navigating something so unimaginable and heavy as a mother is something Tiana never thought she would have to do, but we asked her how she managed to handle such hard news.
“Honestly, I really don’t know,” she said. “Take it one day at a time. Things were moving so fast I didn’t have time to process anything.”
The Williams family has been traveling to St. Jude’s children’s hospital in Memphis since December, but they were able to come home for Christmas.
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“Although its unforeseen, we’re just very hopeful and we’re praying everyday that God provides that pathway for all of this. You know, if its meant to be then it’ll be,” Tiana added.
But, she has a message for other parents going through a diagnosis like her son and for parents who may have to endure this fight in the future.
“…Life is too short. I believe we don’t take that serious enough, or the thought that life can change from one minute to the next. Because when that happens, you know, there’s so many things you think about – the things I wish I could have done, just all these things – but nothing really matters more than that love and just kind of making every moment count in life,” she said.
On Thursday, a bunch of Jeramyh’s classmates, members of the band and teachers from Sparkman Middle surprised him at his house to play some songs and cheer him up.
You can see the video of the surprise here!
Jeramyh’s family members and basketball team are raising funds to help pay for his battle against DIPG. If you’d like to donate and learn more about Jeramyh’s story, click here.
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