Cards for Kody: Community sends greetings to Perry grad battling brain cancer

PERRY -- Many days the mailman has to bring the mail up to the front door at 207 Addison Lane because the bulk is too large to fit in the mailbox.

He delivers loads of postcards, greeting cards, pictures, notes and even envelopes full of hand-made cards. They come from friends, churches and complete strangers. Mossy Creek Middle School’s eighth-grade students brought over a “thinking of you” poster signed by its class.

The mail comes mostly from Georgia but also from as far away as Egypt, Singapore and Germany. Some are signed with names. Others simply read, “Someone who cares,” “Church family,” or “A friend.”

They are messages to 19-year-old Kody Lucas, a Perry High School graduate battling brain cancer since 2007.

It started as more than 150 cards per day a few weeks ago. Now he receives about 50.

It takes him a couple of hours to get through the mail each day.

“I sit and read each and every one of them,” Lucas said. “It means so much to me, and it just shows me how much people we know around the community and everywhere care about me and how many people support me. They pray for me and think of me, and it’s just very uplifting.”

Lucas graduated from Perry High in May, a day his mother said was a long time coming after he missed a year of school while receiving medical care.

A day after walking across the stage, Lucas found out his cancer had relapsed. Since then, it has progressed to a point where he is mostly immobile.

“He’s pretty much sitting on the couch every day,” said Donna Moss, Lucas’ mother. “He used to get mail a lot when he first got sick, but then it kind of tapered off.”

Lucas would ask each day if he got any mail, so Moss put a message on his care page letting folks know he enjoys getting mail. From there, it just took off through Facebook and word of mouth.

Lucas has received well more than a thousand cards within the past few weeks, Moss said.

“It gives him hope, and it gives him a reason to smile,” Moss said. “When you’re given the kind of statistics that we’re facing, any smile you can get from your child is a blessing. ... It definitely brings sunlight to a dark situation.”

Doctors at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., gave Lucas six months tops to live in June.

“I don’t want to be rude or selfish about it, but I’m only 19,” Lucas said. “I don’t too much want to leave this Earth too soon. ... I’m not terribly satisfied with that.”

When he was first diagnosed in 2007 with anaplastic astrocytoma, a type of brain cancer, doctors gave Lucas a less than 20 percent chance to live two years. He is now nearing four-and-a-half years of living with cancer.

Lucas has made plans to attend a book signing Nov. 13 at Georgia College & State University. The book, “Bless You Child,” written by cancer survivor and author Sophia Peavy, shares Lucas’s story and that of 74 others battling cancer.

The event is at 1:30 p.m. in the campus’s Magnolia Ballroom. All proceeds will go to support cancer organizations.

Lucas also is looking forward to his next trip to St. Jude in December.

“He’s not gonna give up,” Moss said. “He doesn’t want to believe that there’s nothing that can be done. I honestly believe that is the only reason Kody is still alive. He is a fighter. He’s not ready to just lay down.”

To contact writer Caryn Grant, call 256-9751.

This story was originally published October 28, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Cards for Kody: Community sends greetings to Perry grad battling brain cancer."