If not, let's find that out, too. Then these kids can stop worrying. The seemingly increasing number of cancer cases at Southside High School prompted three sets of parents and two City Council members to write a letter to Elmira school officials, asking them to look into any health risks at the school. In response, the state Department of Health is investigating whether environmental factors are linked to the development of cancer in 13 current and former students at Southside since 1997. Meanwhile, the students afflicted with disease are forming strong connections with one another and are sharing information about the illness and its treatment with concerned classmates and their parents.
Wood has colon cancer.
The experience of combating cancer has made the young men spiritually stronger and more concerned for others, Candy Scofield said. It also has forced them into maturity. Stephen Scofield was 17, ready to begin his senior year, when he found out that he had cancer. Within hours of that discovery, he had to have the tumor removed. A few weeks later, he and his parents traveled to Indianapolis to have an invasive, eight-hour surgery to remove all the lymph nodes in his stomach.