His fight against cancer began when Miller felt ill one day in November and his mother, Shannon, thought her son had strep throat. She took him to their nurse practitioner who did a strep and flu test, but both came back negative. The next week, he felt worse and when they went back to the practitioner for more tests the cancer was discovered.
“It was like a punch in the gut,” said Shannon Miller.
AML is a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
The Miller’s made the decision to transfer their son to Cincinnati Children’s. Their family, friends and classmates learned of his diagnosis and jumped in to help. Indian Riffle Elementary school teachers and staff collected about $500 worth of gift cards to help the family with groceries, gas and food. Miller’s teachers at Fairmont collected gift cards among themselves.
Miller’s first round of chemotherapy lasted 10 days and he responded but had a lot of headaches and illness that cancer patients endure. He is required to do five rounds of treatments.
After the first round of chemo, he was considered in remission.
He wanted to make sure he was going to graduate with his class. He had enrolled in a lot of honors and summer classes previously, according to his mom, and almost had enough credits to graduate already when the diagnosis came.
“He was always doing a little bit extra to stay ahead of the game,” said Shannon Miller.
Miller is in the final round of treatments, which caused him to miss Wednesday’s ceremony.
Fairmont officials had planned to live-stream Jimmy from his hospital be to the graduation ceremony itself but found a conflict because the actual ceremony was live-streamed already.
So Sunday night, Fairmont Principal Tyler Alexander called Miller’s mom and asked if he could give Jimmy his diploma in person.
“Jimmy has had a difficult year,” Alexander said. “Between going through treatments, completing his senior year, we wanted to make sure he felt his accomplishment.”
Alexander delivered Miller’s diploma Tuesday night and the media staff at Cincinnati Children’s put on a little ceremony for him. It was video’d and portions of it were played during Fairmont’s ceremony Wednesday.
“We would do this for any student in this situation,” Alexander said.
Children’s threw a party for him during the live stream and catered in Miller’s favorite food, Noodles and Company.
Miller lives with his mom, dad, and two younger brothers, Ryder and Maverick. He plans to attend Wittenberg University in the fall majoring in nursing.
“I cannot say enough about the community in general,” his mother Shannon said. “They really rallied around Jimmy and our family.” She said support from the staff and other parents at Cincinnati Children’s has also been helpful.
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