This is the story of my son, Drake Bailey.  Drake was born on 11/14/2000.  Almost immediately his mother and I knew he was going to be playing sports when he got older. He started playing t-ball at 4 and played baseball for several years afterwards, tried soccer 1 year, played basketball for several years, but discovered that football and wrestling were the 2 sports that he loved. For some reason he really enjoyed the work ethic that was required along with the fact that they were both really physical sports. He put in the time and effort required and began to develop more and more as an athlete. This past year was his second year playing on the D-Team at Eastside High School. He was a wide receiver, linebacker, kicker, and played on special teams. About the middle of the year he began to have some back pains. Since he was playing football we figured it was just muscle strains and took him to get checked out. Some x-rays were done of his lower back which came back good and we were told to treat it as a strain and ice it and take ibuprofen. We did that but it never seem to take away the pain. Then he began to have some on and off fevers . So we took him to his pediatrician to see if he might have a kidney infection. The doctor did some tests and they all came back negative and again just said he had a bad back strain and to continue the same treatment. It got so bad we had to  keep him out of practice and a game for 1 week. He then returned the following week to play in the last game of the season.  He was at times noticeably in pain but he continued to play through it and even made a great catch for a TD.  He continued to have a few nights where he would have a low-grade fever but was over-all saying he felt okay. Towards that weekend he also developed a little bit of a dry cough and had said that he had experienced some light-headedness and 1 night he said he was having chills. On Sunday,11/02/14, while sitting in church he could barely stay awake and he said he was dizzy. We decided to take him to MD360 and make sure they ran every test on him they could since there was obviously something going on in his body that the other doctors just hadn't found yet. They performed an EKG, did blood work, and had a chest x-ray done. The EKG was fine, the blood work was good except it showed elevated levels of creatine (an indication of something going on in the kidneys), and the chest x-ray revealed what they thought was an enlarged Thymus. Because the Thymus is supposed to shrink and get smaller as you age this was concerning and the Dr. had us got to the hospital to get a CT scan done of his chest. We waited a few hours and the Dr. came back in to tell us that he had a fairly large mass(approx. 13x10 cm) in his upper chest. To say the least we were floored! The Dr. immediately arranged for a room in the pediatric oncology department of the hospital, we went home to gather our things, took Drake out to Five Guys, and headed to the hospital.  He had another CT scan on the lower half of his body which showed signs of cancer in his kidneys as well, which was the cause of all of the back pain. After some pretty anxious days waiting for the biopsy results and a very stressful night where he was rushed to ICU because the mass was precluding his ability to breath properly, we finely got a diagnosis.  He had T-Cell Lymphoblastic Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.  We were told that this was a very rapidly growing cancer but was also 1 that responds very quickly to treatment.  He started treatment immediately and is on his way to beating this cancer! Drake is an amazing kid: he is an A/B student at school, he is a talented athlete, he is laid back and easy going, he gets along with everyone, he enjoys making others laugh and having a good time(especially dancing), he enjoys shooting guns and hunting, he is always concerned with others and polite, and he is strong in his faith and puts his relationship with God first.  And that's easy to say and what someone would expect me to say since I'm his father. But where I have really had the honor to see how others see him and think of him have been through all of the cards and posts about him from his peers and his teachers. Everything that I see him to be at home are the same things everyone else sees in him away from home and that gives me and the rest of his family great joy in knowing he is the same no matter where he is or who he is around.  I have started this fund in hopes of helping covering some of the out-of-pocket costs that are going to be associated with all of his medical bills and his prolonged chemo treatment. Drake and his family have been overwhelmed with the amount of support, prayers, cards, gifts, and posts that we have received, and we thank you. If you feel led to give in any way,  in any amount, we would be extremely grateful. Thank you again and we look forward to the day when Drake can say he is cancer free!