Nicole Peterson has a goal to see McHenry go gold in September 2026 in support of childhood cancer research.

She’s started that campaign at McHenry Middle School in District 15, where she is a paraprofessional. For the past two years, Peterson has worked with the school’s leadership to encourage students to wear gold – the color used to promote childhood cancer awareness month in September – while raising money for families and research.

It’s something she’s passionate about because her son, Jaxon, now 15, was diagnosed with B-cell leukemia the day after his 13th birthday in 2023.

“You don’t think about it until it affects you,” Peterson said. “I knew it existed, but I didn’t think about it until my son was diagnosed.”

Before Jaxon’s diagnosis, she didn’t know why his energy levels were so low.

“I thought he was being lazy. He kept sitting down. ... I thought just ‘being a teenager’ was setting in,” Peterson said.

But then one morning, Jaxon looked too pale.

“He came downstairs. I asked, ‘What is wrong with your face?’” Peterson said.

She took him to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, which then transferred Jaxon to Advocate Children’s Hospital in Park Ridge. The treatment – and his cancer – went quickly from there, Peterson said.

“This child is my hero. He has not wavered or faltered once [during his treatment],” she said.

There were tough times. Once, after being released home, she found him passed out on the bedroom floor. The cat had woken her up just in time, as Jaxon was septic from what may have been foodborne E. coli. He was flown from Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital to Advocate Children’s.

Another attempt at a new cancer immunotherapy did not work.

Jaxon didn’t return to school in 2023, instead learning with tutors until the very end of his eighth-grade year. Two days after he got out of the hospital in May 2024, he was able to be in school for his very last field trip and eighth-grade graduation.

Jaxon is now a sophomore at McHenry Community High School. On Sept. 25, he helped hand out cancer awareness bracelets to his classmates with the help of Principal Greg Eiserman and the future health professionals club.

The Petersons asked Eiserman to do something for childhood cancer awareness, club adviser Leah Pelletier said.

“After their brainstorming, [Eiserman] ordered bracelets to pass out,” and students and staff wore gold and yellow for school one day and for the next day’s football game.

“We hope to do more in the future as a club to help bring more awareness,” Pelletier said.

McHenry Middle School Principal Michael Glover has helped promote the recognition month at his school. He’s aware of three students who’ve had a cancer diagnosis since he started there in 2012, Glover said.

To show support, some of the middle school students took to wearing gold or yellow every Thursday in September – including shirts designed by students Lilly Reinhart and Charlotte Erlandson last year.

“We held a T-shirt design contest, and the winning designs are now featured on shirts we are selling,” Peterson said.

Fund raised through shirt sales will go toward helping families of future middle school students who receive a cancer diagnosis, “providing care packages, grocery assistance and much more,” she said.

Organizers also are selling yellow ribbons and are planning a doughnut day – two for $1 – for Bricks of Hope, an organization that delivers Lego kits to children in the hospital.

Jaxon is back at home, but he is not yet done with treatment. He’s taking a daily chemotherapy pill and once a month goes back into the hospital for IV chemo and a blood draw to ensure the cancer hasn’t come back.

Although he’s technically in the maintenance phase of treatment, the doctors won’t call it remission until December 2026, Peterson said.

In the meantime, he hopes that parents and families get a better understanding of what childhood cancers are and how they can affect families.

“Kids don’t know anything” about cancer and often think it is a death sentence, Jaxon said, adding that if they know about cancer, it might not feel so bad if it happens to them.