Faith and community help Adam’s fight against cancer

MCE/MCC basketball game to help raise funds.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

BRANCH TWP. — Life for Adam Rader and his family has not been easy the past couple of years. in Oct. 2011, at the age of 16, Adam was diagnosed with Ewings Sacroma, a rare bone and tissue cancer. Faith and community support have help the family move forward however.

In fact, though Adam is homeschooled, the proceeds from drawings and raffles at Thursday’s Mason County Eastern and Mason County Central girls basketball game in Custer will go towards the family.

He is the son of Joe and Ami Jo Voorheis. Several benefits have been held in the community to help the high school senior.

“The benefits help us tremendously when we have driven to Grand Rapids over the last year and a half and logged around 60,000 miles on our car,” Ami Jo says. “It costs a lot to be away from home. You have to buy everything double. Our life has been non-stop since Adams’ diagnosis. We go to Helen Devos Children’s Hospital once or twice a week for blood counts on the weeks he is not having chemo. When he is having radiation we are driving him to Grand Rapids five days a week.

“It is hardest because we are a family that likes to be home. We have a small farm and just enjoy life at home out in the Walhalla area.”

Though the journey, if you can call it that, of cancer has been a struggle, the family keeps it’s faith.

“We are a strong Christian family,” Amy Jo says. “We attend Beacon Ministries (in Victory Township) and we do believe that God is a miracle-working God and he will heal Adam. This is not my son’s destiny. Adam loves politics and he says he will run for president one day. He has plans to go to Oral Roberts University majoring in business management or law.

“One of my favorite quotes is: ‘What is impossible with man is possible with Jesus.’

“I will tell you being at the Helen DeVos Children’s hospital for about six month out of the first year of diagnosis really opens your eyes. There are babies a few months old to children 20 years old from all over Michigan fighting for their life. We have grown to love our nurses and doctors and other patients and their families. They are family to us now. They have a wonderful staff and could not ask for better care.

“Adam is know for his smile, he has a contagoues smile, that is what almost everyone says.”

Ami Jo says Adam has been feeling great lately.

Thursday night’s MCC/MCE game will include a 50/50 raffle, cake raffle and the sale of bracelets and pins. A fundraiser is planned for Saturday, March 23 at Sherman Township Hall. We will post more information as the date comes nearer (see also poster below).