Community rallies around girl with leukemia

Something wasn’t right when Amelia Williamson started the school year as a seventh-grader at Random Lake Middle School.

The normally energetic 12-year-old who played volleyball and participated in track and field was plagued by persistent headaches and fatigue.

“It was right at the beginning of school, probably October, when she developed these chronic headaches that got progressively worse,” Amelia’s mother Katie said.

At first, Katie thought a vision problem may be to blame for her daughter’s headaches, but an optometrist reported Amelia had perfect vision.

Then Amelia’s symptoms became worse.

“She tried to play volleyball and track but just kept falling over because her legs were so weak,” Katie said.

Amelia’s pediatrician examined her but found nothing alarming.

“They just kept telling us that she’s a preteen and was dehydrated,” Katie said. 

Call it mother’s intuition, but that diagnosis didn’t make sense to Katie, and when Amelia began looking pale and developed bags under her eyes, Katie insisted that a blood test be done.

“I thought she was anemic,” Katie said.

Two hours later, Katie finally got an answer, and it was one no parent wants to hear.

“The pediatrician called us back two hours later saying Amelias’s white blood cells were off the charts and to pack our bags for Children’s Hospital because it was possibly leukemia,” Katie said. 

On April 24, Amelia was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. 

It was a devastating diagnosis but one that a small town wasn’t going to let the family deal with alone. Amelia, her mom, father Jake and siblings Audrey, 16, and Jake, 5, lived in Waubeka before moving to the Random Lake area. Amelia attended Northern Ozaukee schools in Fredonia and her father served on the Waubeka Fire Department, and the family’s connection to this small community remains strong.

And now that community is planning to turn out for Amelia during a Saturday, May 31, fundraiser from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. at Stony Hill Pub and Grill, N5423 Cigrand Dr., Waubeka, and at a line dancing event that evening from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at the Waubeka Fire Hall.

At Stony Hill Pub and Grill, there will be a DJ, 50/50 raffles, prize drawings and donation jars.

The line dancing at the Waubeka Fire Hall will be led by Blended Boots and proceeds will be donated to the Williamson family.

“The whole community is coming together to support this family, and I think that’s fantastic,” Becky Manthei, one of the organizers of the fundraiser, said. “People are walking around town saying, ‘See you Saturday (at the fundraiser)’ and we have a meal train going so the family doesn’t have to worry about dinners.”

Proceeds from the fundraiser will help pay Amelia’s medical bills, which promise to be significant.

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or B-ALL, is a rare blood cancer that affects the development of B-cells, which are white blood cells made in bone marrow that help the body fight off infections. In B-ALL, the bone marrow makes too many abnormal, immature B-cells called lymphoblasts that build up in the marrow and spill into the blood, which allows them to spread quickly. The term “acute,” refers to the sudden and severe onset of the disease that can progress quickly.

Amelia’s prognosis is good, but her treatment and recovery could take more than two years, her mother said.

Now 13, Amelia spent nine days at Children’s Hospital in April and early May and is back home. After chemotherapy, she will undergo blinatumomab immunotherapy, which connects T cells to cancer cells to trigger her immune system to attack the leukemia cells.

She missed the end of the school year.

“But since she had all As and Bs, the school said that wasn’t a problem,” Katie said. 

She will likely start next school year taking online classes.

For now, she has her hands full fighting a serious disease.

“She’s very tired,” her mother said. “She’ll get a little bit of energy, but then just go back to bed.”

It will be a long road for the entire family, but the support of the Waubeka community has made all the difference, Katie said.

“You don’t realize how important that is until something like this happens,” she said. “The support has just been amazing.”