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| Noah Fowler |
In the Thursday, Jan.
9, issue of the Winston-Salem Journal, reporter
Wes Young writes about the Piney Grove Elementary School community coming
together to support one of the students. Here is an excerpt:
Help can come
by the armful.
Just ask Nicholas Thornton and his family.
Nicholas has aplastic anemia, a rare condition in which the
body’s bone marrow does not produce enough new blood cells and platelets.
A local nonprofit group has raised about $14,000 toward the
cost of a van to help with Nicholas’ transportation needs, but some
enterprising kids have helped, too, by making and selling rubber-band bracelets.
Last January, Nicholas’ parents noticed some bruises that
didn’t look quite right, so they took him to the doctor. Nicholas’ blood count
was low; he was sent to Brenner Children’s Hospital where the diagnosis of
aplastic anemia was made.
Weeks later, Nicholas suffered a brain hemorrhage and landed
in intensive care. A second hemorrhage soon followed, and by May 1 he was
transferred to Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, where he began
rehabilitation.
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| Nicholas Thornton |
“At that point he was not talking and couldn’t move his left
or right side,” said Nancy Thornton, his mother. “We were there for 128 days of
rehab, and now he’s talking and moving his right side, but his left side is
still immobile.”
In September, Nicholas received a bone-marrow transplant
from his dad, Jon Thornton. Nicholas finally returned home Dec. 11, but with
plenty of challenges. Nicholas has a powered wheelchair and needed a van for
transportation to his numerous medical appointments.
People who know the Thorntons — and a whole lot of folks who
do not — have been contributing help in the form of money and time.
One of those was Noah Fowler, one of Nicholas’ best friends
and a fifth-grader at Piney Grove Elementary School. Noah worked up the courage
late last year to ask Principal Susan Frye if he could make and sell
rubber-band bracelets to help his friend.
Frye said yes, and got the student council involved, too.
“It was a real heartfelt thing that a fifth-grade boy would
come to my office,” Frye said. “It really touched my heart and so I was really
taken — Noah’s humanity for a friend and wanting to help out.”
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