The Central Catholic community has been known for many years to be there as a whole, and support each other in times of different situations, good and bad. Whether student or alumni, Central is known for the strong young men that makes up the Button name.

One of those strong young men is Noah Adams, who is a senior this year. He can’t be physically present on campus right now to enjoy all the sights and sounds of the Brotherhood. It’s not due to the current climate of the pandemic, but for a more serious medical reason.

Adams was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as Ewing-Sarcoma back in July.

Adams says, “At first, they didn’t exactly know what it was…The appointment that I had for her (his sports doctor) was for my arm, because I had an issue with it… I couldn’t straighten it out, so I had them look at that.”

Then after a scare with his legs and how they bent, Adams says the sports doctor recommended MRI’s after an abnormalities. “When the MRI came back, she was like, ‘I don’t know how to say this, but you have cancer….’ ”

Adams continues saying, “For the first two or three seconds my heart dropped then after that I was like well, I have to beat it.”

Those words ultimately gave Noah Adams the calmness, courage, faith, and strength to be able to continue fighting for his life.

According to the St. Jude Children’s Research website, “Ewing sarcoma is the second most common type of bone cancer in children, but it is very rare. About 200 children and young adults are found to have Ewing sarcoma each year in the United States.”

Some other notable things that St. Jude mentions about Ewing-Sarcoma is:

• About half of all Ewing sarcoma tumors occur in children and young adults between ages 10 and 20.
• It affects slightly more boys than girls.
• It does not appear to be inherited (passed down in families).

His mother, Debi Harper, was very emotional but only has one word to describe her son. “Strong.” “Except for losing the hair and a little bit of discoloration and what not, he’s still Noah. Sometimes you forget he’s even sick,” Harper says. Noah is the youngest one of four kids, six including her boyfriend’s two kids. Harper says, “He is just the strongest out of all of them…He’s just strong…it is pretty amazing.”

She also shared the full story of what led to his diagnosis. “He picked up skateboarding during the pandemic and he loves sunsets so he used to go right around 7:30 or so…and he came in one time and he told me that he fell down and hurt himself…After about two or three weeks, he kept bugging me and was telling me that it really, really hurts, and we went to his regular practitioner and they said, “I don’t know what it is, it is probably a sports injury…” They then sent us to a sports doctor. We did the MRI and told us to come back in two days. So we went, and I’m still not thinking anything. She was thinking it was a pulled tendon or something… and then she told us and explained that this is always hard to tell anyone… but he has cancer.” Harper was in shock and couldn’t believe it. Every parent’s nightmare was now a reality for Harper. “Of course I started crying immediately,” Harper says. “And at that point, nothing else mattered. It was heart-breaking.”

Around the Central Catholic community, the hashtag #Noahstrong has been trending on social media. His family and the school have also been selling yellow wristbands with the same hashtag, and the message, “No one fights alone.”

When asked about the overflowing support from the community and pretty much everywhere, Adams said, “Along with my ‘brothers’ and what not, there’s just a bunch of random people helping. My mom was reached out by someone from Ontario, Canada and there’s people in Nebraska and California asking for updates because they saw my story. The amount of support is just really overwhelming. I honestly don’t know where it’s coming from… but I didn’t think it would haul for this much support. It’s overwhelming and baffling to know I have this much support. There’s people behind my back from everywhere.”

He also says, his close friends from Central have had his back as well. “…my friends of ten or twelve guys, we play a lot on the XBOX and talk a lot…” He also says, a number of guys attended a small drive-by and left him cards and gifts, even before they knew.

Noah says he definitely feels better than before, but also needs people to wear their masks and beat the battle of the pandemic, so he could return to school. He says, “If everyone wore their masks, and got rid of COVID, then I would be at school right now.” He explained how that was another concern itself and that some days he was at risk and some days not so much, but because of his white blood cell count, he can’t risk taking the odd chance.

A Go Fund Me page has been set up to help raise funds for him and his family. Of a $15,000 goal, they have raised just over $10,000. If you would like to help by donating, please click on the link below to do so.

On behalf of the writers at the PEP, we would like for Noah Adams and his family to know that we are right there with them and that Noah is strong and will beat this. The entire Central Catholic community, are supporting you during your fight. We all know you are strong, you are “Noah Strong”!

Go Fund Me link:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/d7hzew-noahstrong?utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all