Woman's Fight Against Cancer Touches Huntley Residents

Jessica Rancak was determined to go out and buy her daughters’ Halloween costume because it’s what a mom does.

The 30-year-old’s family and friends offered to get the costumes since she had just been released from the hospital and was not supposed to go out, but she wouldn’t have any of it.

Every other mom does it and these are the important things for children, she told family friend Stephanie Burrows.

“She loves her kids, they are the world to her,” said Burrows.

Rancak is doing the things moms do between the chemotherapy she must have in her battle against acute lymphatic leukemia.

Her battle has touched others, including Lori Nichols, a Huntley mom of two and a member of the Huntley Jaycees.

“It’s heartbreaking that a mother of such small children has to go through this,” Nichols said.

Burrows and Nichols are just a few of the people reaching out to help Jessica Rancak and her family through numerous fundraisers in and around Huntley, including a Huntley Jaycees Wheel of Meat event on Nov. 11.

“It’s amazing how much people care, they don’t even know (her) but they care enough to help” her, Burrows said. “We can’t thank them enough.”

Community Rallies

“She’s like most of us. She’s a mom. She gave up her career to stay home with her children,” Burrows said. “She’s a wonderful mom. She is kind and generous. She’s funny. She puts up with Tom, so that’s a lot right there.”

Tom and Jessica Rancak live in Crystal Lake with their daughters, ages 3 and 5. Tom works in Huntley and is an active member of the .

“They are a young family and they are very energetic and they are incredibly, hardworking people,” said Sheldon Clark, another friend of Tom’s through the chamber.

“Tom is very, very dedicated to his family — not just to his wife but their young daughters. He makes it home at a certain time every evening for dinner. If he has to go back to work later, he does, but it gives you a peek at the character of the man.”

The Rancak family recently learned Jessica was sick after she went to see the doctor because she was feeling under the weather. Blood work showed she had acute lymphatic leukemia.

The cost of treatments will far exceed insurance limits, Burrows said. Jessica is facing more chemotherapy rounds, a bone marrow transplant and numerous blood transfusions, she said. A single chemo treatment costs $30,000. Other costs include an at-home nurse at a rate of $1,000 a week, she said.

“It’s emotional, it’s time-consuming and financially difficult,” Clark said “Right now, we are trying to at least help out with the finances.”

The Rancaks’ extended family also is working on doing fundraisers, including a golf outing in the spring.

“They are doing OK,” Burrows said. “They are looking for answers. They are looking for treatments. They are all pulling together.”

Huntley Jaycees Help

Nichols, the Jaycees director of community relations, has never met Jessica Rancak. But she knows Tom Rancak through his work with the . Tom Rancak is “concentrating on being positive and having hope,” she said.

Huntley Jaycees holds the Wheel of Meat fundraiser in the spring and the fall to help families. The Jaycees decided to donate all the proceeds of the Nov. 11 event to Rancak and her family.

The Jaycees had three requests — two from business owners battling Stage 4 breast cancer — for fundraisers but chose to do one for the Rancak family since the Wheel of Meat was coming up and the family seemed to have the most dire need.

Nichols is working on organizing two other fundraisers to help the other families. 

“We don’t (usually get this many requests). It was pretty heart-wrenching when we had three calls all within two weeks,” she said.

“We are going to help all three,” she said. “We do what we can. We try to raise as much as we can to help.”

Burrows is impressed with the Jaycees and how “in a blink of an eye … (they) adopted this cause,” she said. “I think they are amazing. I think they are an awesome group of people.”

Bracelets, T-shirts Donated

Burrows also is working with Sheldon Clark, a Huntley businessman, on other fundraisers. The two are selling bracelets and T-shirts that read “Hearts for Jessica.”

Burrows and Pat Lawlor, another member of the chamber, came up with the idea of selling the bracelets reading “Hearts for Jessica.” Lawlor then donated the T-shirts. The bracelets are available for a $5 donation and the T-shirts for $10.

There’s also a Culver’s night scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28 at the Huntley location on Route 47. Burrows said 10 percent of the pretax order will be donated to the family.

The first batch of T-shirts is almost sold out and people are asking Clark how to donate.

“There are some nice people in this community,” Clark said.