NEAR WEST SIDE — The Whitney Young community is rallying around one of their own as a teacher's daughter prepares to fight a rare cancer this year.
Proceeds from Friday night's Whitney Young boys basketball game will be donated to the family of 12-year-old Ally Peek, a student at Burley Elementary in Lakeview. Ally's father Jeff Peek operates Whitney Young's guitar program and her older sister Emmy is a freshman at Whitney Young.
The game kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday as the boys basketball team takes on Westinghouse. Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for adults, and 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit Ally's Allies, a group that aims to support Ally as she battles cancer.
Students and parents attending the game are encouraged to wear orange in support of Ally.
Donations will also be accepted at the game. Money raised will be used to offset Ally's medical expenses.
Ally, who loves playing the piano, Harry Potter and Elvis, also dreams of attending Whitney Young, said Anne-Michele Boyle, world history teacher at the selective-enrollment high school.
After doctors discovered a cyst in her upper thigh in December, Ally was diagnosed with rare cancer Synovial Sarcoma on Jan. 14, Boyle said. The tumor is large and aggressive, but the cancer has not spread, she said.
Ally was prescribed a 25-week treatment of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery and her first round of chemotherapy started Friday. The family anticipates her treatment will be completed in mid-July, Boyle said.
For more information on how to help, visit Ally's Allies on Facebook.
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