FRANKLIN, Ind. -- A community is rallying behind a family in a battle against cancer.
Kaleb Buck of Franklin was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2011.
There have been months when it looked like the chemotherapy and radiation had beat the disease. The cancer has come back, but Kaleb and his family and friends have never given up.
Kaleb is still one semester short of getting his high school diploma at Franklin Community High School in Johnson County. But his friends could not bare graduating without their buddy, so the community came up with plan b.
Buck finds life much calmer in the wind.
"When I go hunting with Dad and Kody we just focus on that time together, and when we come home time to go the hospital we just focus on that, just one at a time," he said.
When not with family, or dealing with chemo or radiation, he finds himself with his favorite bible verse, Philippians 4:13.
"It says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Anytime I get down or anything that's what I think of. It gets my mind off everything. I'm not alone doing it. I have faith. I have Christ with me," he said.
The fight with bone cancer has kept him in and out of the classroom. He's one semester from getting his official diploma.
So to encourage him to finish, friends and family came up with an idea of a motivational graduation. The ceremony will include 50 of his classmates at Franklin Community High School.
"I didn't think I'd see it, makes me feel good," he said.
He will receive an honorary diploma until he earns the real one.
"Anything you put your mind to you can do it. You have to put the effort," Buck said.
So this weekend will cap a milestone worthy of praise, and a testament to a young man resolved to live in the moment.
The graduation ceremony at Franklin Community High School is Saturday at 6:00 p.m. The event is open to the public. Besides graduation, Kaleb celebrates another milestone when he turns 18 next week.
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