Texas high school holds graduation early for teen with terminal cancer

Lynzee Ford, 17, has undergone five rounds of chemotherapy since being diagnosed with caner in January. Recently, doctors told the Texas teen that her cancer, a form of leukemia, was terminal.

Upon learning that Lynzee doesn’t have long to live, her mother, Valerie Warren, and friends quickly started planning a high school graduation ceremony for Lynzee.

“[Children’s Medical Center in Dallas] said there’s nothing else they can do for her,” Warren told the Kilgore News Herald. “So their number is four months, but we’re not going to live like it’s a funeral. We’re not going to live thinking of that day.”

"Graduation is a right of passage for every high school student, just like prom is, your first date, learning how to ride your first bicycle,” Warren told KETK News. “I didn’t want Lynzee to miss out on anything. We’ve been in the hospital for 9 months…and she missed out on last summer, getting her first job…her driver’s license…so we’re just gonna make life as normal as possible.”

On Monday afternoon, Kilgore High School in Texas held an early graduation ceremony just for Lynzee. The gymnasium was packed with students, Lynzee’s friends and family, even first responders and the mayor, all there to watch Lynzee accept her diploma.

“Lynzee is a very special young lady here at Kilgore High School and is loved by us all, and she wanted to graduate from here and we wanted to make sure that happened,” Principal Gregg Brown, who was the keynote speaker at the ceremony, stated.

At the event, friends shared stories of their time with Lynzee, and Warren offered a few words of encouragement to her daughter:

“Momma still loves you, but you’re grown and you’re going to have to get a job,” Warren said.

Because Lynzee likely won’t live to see her prom in the spring, her friends are moving the date of prom to November so she can attend.

Other Kilgore residents helped renovate Lynzee’s mother’s house to make it wheelchair-accessible and set up a fund to help cover Lynzee’s medical expenses.

"It touched my heart and I knew that had to do something. Good health is something we take for granted every day, a lot of us every day, and nobody should have to go through this, and especially not a child," said David Barrett, a volunteer who helped build the wheelchair ramp at Warren’s house.

Lynzee remains hopeful:

"Never give up. Never give up," she told reporters.

“We’re going to be positive because the days that the Lord allows us to go to sleep and then He wakes us up, that’s a whole new day,” Warren said. “That’s another day. That’s a different day.”