Anchorage Daily News

KENAI -- Sporting a replica WWE championship belt around his waist, 8-year-old Marcus Yamada flips onto a couch, mimicking his favorite wrestler, Jeff Hardy.

Described by his mother, Charlie, as a "pingpong ball," Marcus is full of all the energy one would expect a youth to have; it's next to impossible to believe he just finished a 15-day cycle of heavy chemotherapy that should have left him drained.

Strong support from the community and his family's positive outlook have helped carry Marcus and the Yamadas through his first year of treatment.

"It takes the entire team," Charlie said. "Every person has a role, everybody has things to do in order to win the fight against cancer."

"The only thing we can do is go forward," said Marcus' dad, Glenn. "From day one, we look forward."

Just under a year ago, Marcus was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, promyelocytic leukemia. The diagnosis sent the Yamada family -- Marcus, his mom, dad and brother, Mason -- to Seattle Children's Hospital. From February through June, Marcus underwent various treatments.

According to Charlie, Seattle Children's Hospital sees around 2,000 new diagnoses of child leukemia each year. Marcus was only the third case of promyelocytic leukemia she said the hospital had ever seen.

"They actually rewrote the protocol as to how to treat his type of leukemia as he was going through it," Charlie said.

Since returning to Kenai, Marcus has three different forms of chemotherapy he takes orally. He takes one type every day, another type once a week, and a third form is spread out over eight 84-day rounds where Marcus takes the medication the first 15 days of each round.

Marcus also has anti-anxiety, anti-nausea, antibiotic and anti-fungal medications in addition to his chemo.

Marcus' cancer is currently in remission, and has been since a month and a half after arriving in Seattle. His medication is called maintenance chemotherapy and is used to prevent cancer from reoccurring.

The Yamadas couldn't have gotten to where they are today without the support of friends and family.

"The community has been our saving grace," Charlie said. "It's just phenomenal."

Multiple fundraisers were put on to help out the Yamadas as both Charlie and Glenn left work to be with their son while he was in Seattle.

"We were prepared to lose everything," Charlie said.

"If it wasn't for this community, it would have been all gone," Glenn said.

The Yamada family also rallied around Marcus. Charlie's brother and sister sold their shared 10-acre property in the Caribou Hills and gave the proceeds to their sister. Charlie said they didn't even discuss it with her beforehand, it's just what they wanted to do for her.

The Yamadas have remained positive throughout their experience with cancer and learned valuable lessons too.

"If you can find the good in something, then you're better off because looking at the negative is never going to help," Charlie said. "We make the best of everything that we can."

"It's a life change, that's for sure," Glenn said. "You get closer as a family.

"Life is too short," he said. "It's too short to worry about what other people think and just stupid things."

"You know what they say, 'What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger,' and it's true," Charlie said.

"We wouldn't give anything to live anywhere else," Glenn said.

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