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Teacher Kristi Allison looks at a port used to inject medication into Matt Johnston's body. Matt has acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Allison raised money for a leukemia society after she learned of Matt's diagnosis. MIKE MORONES/THE FREE LANCE-STAR View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

Boy's illness touched teacher

Teacher raises money in honor of student

BY JEFF BRANSCOME

Date published: 2/9/2007

BY JEFF BRANSCOME

Every morning, Ferry Farm Elementary teacher Kristi Allison makes sure her students are wearing green wristbands in support of cancer research.

The Stafford County substitute is filling in for a third-grade teacher who went on maternity leave late last year.

But Allison has become a full-time supporter of a boy she taught for only a week.

Eight-year-old Matt Johnston, who loved to play football during recess, left school in December after being diagnosed with leukemia.

While eating one day in the teacher's lounge, Allison felt the urge to do something for the youngster.

"I have two sons of my own and the thought of being dealt such a blow," she said, pausing in midsentence.

So she created a Web page to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in honor of Matt.

She hoped to get $1,000.

Within a week, teachers, parents and others had donated about $2,700. Allison called Matt's mom, Rosemary, to tell her the news.

"You could've knocked me over with a feather," Johnston said.

Matt suffers from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which affects one in 29,000 children a year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Allison will get an iPod for her fundraising efforts and plans to give it to Matt, who turns 9 Feb. 18.

Allison dropped by Matt's house Wednesday for a photo shoot with The Free Lance-Star.

The two sat on a wrap-around couch and talked about football and a third-grade Valentine's Day party Matt plans to attend next Wednesday.

It'll be his first visit to Ferry Farm in more than a month.

Matt, who still has his sandy blond hair, wore a Virginia Tech football shirt and Redskins pants.

All of the school's third-graders are wearing the green wrist bands, she told him.

"When you're in the cafeteria, you can pick out who's who because they all have them on," Allison said.

Because it's too cold to play outside, she told Matt, she recently got her class some mini goal posts for paper football games.

She promised to get him some so that "you can really whup up on your dad" in paper football.

While he's been getting treatment, Matt has e-mailed some of his buddies to suggest football plays for their recess games.

A sporty person herself, Allison trained for a recent race in Arizona with two local members of the leukemia society's Team In Training.

At that 16-mile race, her friends wore official Team in Training shirts with the words "Running for the future of Matt Johnston."

As Allison struggled past the 10th mile, she said, "I kept saying to myself, I reached one goal before I got here, I can do this goal."

She beat her goal of two hours and 15 minutes by 38 seconds. That's the "best run of her life."

"I found a lot of strength from Matt," she said.

To contribute to the leukemia fund in honor of Matt, go to active.com/donate/mcharizona/kallison

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Date published: 2/9/2007