PD News

By Ed Ackerman eackerman@psdispatch.com
Pittston Sunday Dispatch Editor

A mom of a 2-year-old battling leukemia finds comfort where she can. When Tracy Drummond ponders the ordeal her little boy Bobby has gone through during the past year, she keeps thinking of something she was told at the Janet Weiss Children’s Center in Danville: “He’ll never remember this … but you won’t forget it.”

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Tracy Drummond holds her 2-year-old son Bobby who is battling leukemia.

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Bobby Drummond with his grandmother, Jean Walters.

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“For all that has happened to him, he’s just a normal 2-year-old,” Tracy said Saturday afternoon. “He thinks this is what you do when you’re two.”

What Bobby Drummond does is get chemotherapy. He has five weeks of it left and Tracy prays that will be the end of it for a good long time, hopefully forever. For the first six months after his diagnosis, which came about a year ago, Bobby was treated as an in-patient at Janet Weiss.

“That was the worst part,” Tracy said. He’d be hospitalized for a week to 10 days, come home for a day or two, and go back again. His more recent treatments have been as an out-patient.

“He’s had an awful year,” Tracy said, “but all things considered, I’d say he is wonderful. I am very thankful.”

The year also has been awful for Tracy, the former Tracy Walters of Old Forge, her husband Richard and their 9-year-old son Richard.

To help defray some of the costs associated with Bobby’s treatment, St. John’s Lutheran Church, Pittston, staged a fundraising event. They are still accepting donations at the church at 9 Wood St., Pittston. Laurie Brogan, from the church, said they have qualified for a matching Trivent grant so they hope to get the local contribution as high as possible. Tracy said it’s hard to put into words how grateful she is for the support.