With his mother expected to lose her battle with cancer just weeks before his high school graduation, Dalton Jackson decided to put on his graduation cap and gown a little early so his mom could be a part of the big day.
Stephanie Northcott, of Memphis, Tennessee, was admitted to Baptist East Hospital East in late April as her health deteriorated. With her Dalton set to graduate from Halls High School on May 18, Stephanie told her loved ones that she wanted to beat her cancer long enough to see her son receive his diploma.
“She found out about her terminal cancer two years ago,” Julie Northcott, a close friend of Stephanie, tells PEOPLE. “Her only wish was that she would live long enough to see him graduate.”
But as the days went by, doctors told the family they weren’t sure if Stephanie would survive much longer, and that’s when Dalton – along with family, friends, and staff from his school – put a plan in motion to bring the ceremony to Stephanie.
“When she was hospitalized and we found out that she wouldn’t be leaving the hospital,” Julie says, “we got with the high school principal and brought [the ceremony] to her in the hospital chapel.”
Two weeks before Dalton was set to walk across the stage, friends and relatives joined Stephanie to take in the special moment.
“My baby’s graduating,” Stephanie could be heard saying in a video Julie captured from the intimate ceremony.
As “Pomp and Circumstance” played, Dalton walked into the chapel wearing his cap and gown. He was also joined by a few of his football teammates and other friends who came dressed for the occasion.
“You can do anything you ever put your mind to,” Stephanie said in the video just before Dalton received his diploma. “Don’t ever forget that.”
With Hall High School principal Suzanne Keefe on hand, Dalton received his long-awaited diploma and fulfilled his mother’s dying wish.
To top off the ceremony, Dalton danced with his mother to the Rascal Flatts tune, “I Won’t Let Go.”
“I hope it will inspire some other families that are going through a similar crisis,” Julie says of sharing Dalton and Stephanie’s story.
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Stephanie suffers from Lynch syndrome – a condition that causes patients to have a higher risk of developing certain types of cancer and, in her case, rare terminal cancers. Tragically, it is the same disease her daughter, Amber, died from, says family friend Julie.
According to Mayo Clinic, Lynch syndrome is an inherited condition, and if one parent carries the gene mutation, there’s a 50 percent chance it will be passed on to each child. Frequent cancer screening and preventative surgery may help in reducing the risk of developing cancer for those with Lynch syndrome, and taking a daily dose of aspirin has been shown to help.
With graduation now over, Dalton hopes to go to college in Mississippi, CNN reports. Julie – who is married to Stephanie’s ex-husband so they share a last name – says the family are trying to raise funds to help pay for funeral expenses. Donations can be made on their PayPal site.
