Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
As teacher fights cancer, student pumps up fundraising for Relay For Life
Wissahickon event back live at high school stadium
WISSAHICKON » Jenny Kern turned 40 on January 18, 2020, and originally expected to be celebrating her big birthday on a family trip to the Bahamas. Instead, she found herself beginning a difficult recovery from cancer surgery.
Kern has been a business education teacher at Wissahickon High School for 15 years and is an adviser for the school’s Future Business Leaders of America club (FBLA). She is also a wife and the active mother of two young daughters, whose softball teams she coaches.
With no family history of cancer, Kern did not even consider it a possibility when, she says, she began feeling “tired and off.” Even after feeling a lump in her throat, she assumed it was an infection — until the prescribed medication failed to work. On December 9, 2019, Kern was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
Her diagnosis was followed by surgery to remove her thyroid in January 2020, along with 38 lymph nodes, 19 of which tested positive for cancer. After the surgery, she developed an infection that interfered with her ability to swallow, and she missed five weeks of school. In the spring came treatment with radioactive iodine, which kept her away from her family for another week. She isolated, ate on paper plates, and threw out her clothes to protect others from radioactive exposure.
As Kern was undergoing her ordeal with cancer, Wissahickon High School student Christina O’Farrell realized that there was something she could do to help. O’Farrell is a former student of Kern’s and an officer in the FBLA club. She is also a volunteer for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life. The Relay For Life is an annual community event to honor cancer survivors, to remember loved ones lost, and to raise money for the fight against cancer.
“Ms. Kern’s illness shaped how I got involved that year,” said O’Farrell. She and fellow students raised $1,500 for the American Cancer Society from Wissahickon families in 2020.
In both 2020 and 2021, the in-person Relay For Life event was cancelled because of the pandemic. But people like O’Farrell still raised money for the cause. Although the Relay For Life is not a race, O’Farrell and others showed their support by walking individually or in small groups on the weekend that the community event would have taken place.
This year, Relay For Life is back as an in-person event scheduled Saturday, June 25, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., at the Wissahickon High School stadium. It’s an opportunity for people of all ages to come together for a night of fun in support of an important cause. Admission is free, donations are welcome, and people are encouraged to stop by at any time. Come for dinner with family and friends, enjoy activities and entertainment, and honor loved ones affected by cancer with glowing luminaria. For more information, visit the website for the Relay For Life of the Wissahickon Valley at secure.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLCY22NER?pg=entry&fr_id=101922 or contact Natalie Lynch (natalie.lynch@cancer.org).
“Everyone that’s able to come should come and support,” said O’Farrell. “Even those who aren’t directly affected can recognize what a worthy cause this is and how it does affect so many within our own community. Even if you can’t come that evening, you can still donate. There are no limits on how you can get involved.”
As for Kern, she is doing well and is back in the classroom and on the softball field. Her family also got to take that belated birthday trip to the Bahamas. But her experience with cancer did change her. “Things happen for a reason,” she said. “There’s a silver lining. I am not taking things for granted. I am looking at the big picture, and I am very thankful to still be here.”