While most high school students may dread going back to school every Monday, 14-year-old Jared Alan Williams would love nothing more than to sit in a real classroom with his friends and learn something new.

However, life is not that simple for the Autryville native. In addition to facing the normal frustrations of adolescence, he is also battling a deadly form of cancer — leukemia.

His cousin and friend Lorie Faircloth continues to pray every day that he will be cured and he will finally get to return to Lakewood High School and work toward reaching goals he had set for himself.

In the meantime, Williams does have his family, which includes his mother, Frances, and his older brother, to help him through. And, he also has his new puppy to hold onto when the times really get tough.

But it wasn’t that long ago that Jared was just your ordinary teenager. All that stopped last year, however, when he began complaining about having some pain in his back.

“He had a lot of pain, and they initially thought that it was his book bag, but he started to get bruises,” said Faircloth.

With the continued pain and bruising plaguing him, Jared’s mother decided to take her son to see his doctor. But initially, Faircloth said that the problem was not identifiable. Eventually, he even started to have fevers and paleness. “That is when we knew that something was wrong,” said Faircloth.

Last April, his worst nightmare came true when he was diagnosed with the often deadly disease.

Now the teen’s life revolves around constant trips to the doctor’s office, hospitals and medical labs.

For some, the constant trek from one medical facility to another, might be a bother, Jared is making the most of a bad situation, even putting a smile on the faces of the lab technicians who have to draw blood from him twice a week.

Amy Davis, a phlebotimist with Clinton Medical Clinic, is one who has had her day brightened by Jared. “I look forward to seeing him during his visits,” said Davis.

Despite the chemotherapy and radiation treatments the teen is currently undergoing, and the loss of hair that has accompanied that care, Jared, his family said, still remains optimistic, a trait he has carried with him from a healthy young man into one fighting his own battle with illness.

Before his diagnosis, Faircloth pointed out, Jared had grown out his red hair for the Locks of Love Foundation, a group which provides hair to children battling a variety of diseases, another testament, Faircloth said, to the kind of young man he is and always has been.

Knowing all that Jared is facing, Faircloth has taken it upon herself, with the help of others, to make his life a little easier by holding a fund-raising barbecue on Nov.2 1 from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., and 4 to 7 p.m., at the Clement Civic Center. In addition to family helping by providing food, the owner of Crossroad Grocery Store, Milton “Red” Fisher, has plans to donate a pig.

Raffle tickets and baked items will also be sold at the event.

Frances couldn’t be happier knowing how her family and friends continue to give so much of themselves to help her son through what she calls a tough battle.

“That is one thing about my family. We are very giving and loving. I have a family that would give the shirts of their backs,” said Frances.

And Frances is looking forward to running her hands through her sons bright red hair again once he is finally cured.

Jared, himself, wants the same thing, along with the opportunity to listen to his favorite heavy metal band or ride his dirt bike just like other teenagers.

For anyone interested in helping Jared in his battle against leukemia, contact Lorie Faircloth at 990-4582.

Katie Holland can be reached at 910-592-8137, ext. 136, or by e-mail at silife@myclintonnc.com.