World-renowned worship artist Jason Upton will come to Mustang later this month to help a 3-year-old boy and his family as they fight a rare childhood cancer.
All proceeds from Upton's Praise 4 Gray concert Aug. 26 will benefit Mustang residents Doug and Jill Everaard and their children Seth and Grayson. Gray was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma almost a year ago, and the boy continues his fight.
The praise event will begin with a worship event with Upton at 5 p.m. at the Bridge AG. Upton will perform in concert starting at 8 p.m. at the church.
Family friend Erika Knight contacted Upton on a whim almost eight months ago about putting together a benefit concert. She said she was blown away when Upton's manager called her back and said they would be happy to help.
Knight was able to find sponsors to cover the concert's costs, and everything raised going forward will help Gray's family. She said everything has fallen into place.
“I grew up listening to him (Upton),” she said. “It's exciting to meet him. They have been very receptive and thoughtful through this.”
Knight met Doug and Jill Everaard when the couple served as youth pastors in her hometown church in Ponca City. They used a lot of Upton's music in their youth services, and Knight sang his songs as part of her church's worship team.
The Everaards helped her to get more involved in ministry, and when Doug Everaard became district youth pastor at the Oklahoma District Office of the Assemblies of God, her family moved with the Everaards to the Mustang area.
Gray is one of her children's favorite playmates, and when the boy was diagnosed, Knight said she wanted to help somehow. She created Pray4Gray.com and put together fundraisers to help support her friends.
Knight keeps it updated, and she said more than 1,000 people each week visit to stay updated on Gray's story. The website has been viewed by people in more than 80 countries, and many have written back with their prayers and support.
“It's spread like wildfire,” she said. “I know there are people praying every where.”

Gray's fight continues
A new cancer-fighting treatment is giving Doug and Jill Everaard renewed hope for their son's survival, but the experimental therapy has its immediate risks.
Jill Everaard said Gray is the fourth child to undergo proton therapy at Children's Hospital. Doctors have told the couple the treatment is expected to lower Gray's chances of relapsing with neuroblastoma from 70 percent within the first five years to as low as 40 percent.
This is the roughest treatment Gray has faced so far, after undergoing chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, surgery and radiation. He recently finished his second round of proton therapy — during which nurses constantly monitor him and the boy remains on a morphine drip for pain. He's had some bad reactions to the medication — spiking a 105-degree fever, his blood pressure plummeting, breaking out in welts from allergic reactions and coughing until bruises appeared on his body.
Everaard said it's tough to watch Gray struggle like that, and the couple prays that they are making the right decisions to give their son the best chance at life. She said she's met another boy who took the therapy during clinical trials, and he's remained free of cancer.
“When you hear that you are like, 'Oh, God, it's all so new.' When he started to have the reaction, I wanted him to be able to complete it because the results are so good,” she said.
Almost one year
Gray was a normal, energetic boy until last September when he seemed to come down with a cold, but his he didn't seem to get any better.
An X-ray revealed the tumor, and further testing showed the cancer cells had already spread to other parts of his body. Neuroblastoma is an aggressive childhood cancer that begins in immature nerve cells that a fetus makes as part of its development process.
Most neuroblasts mature by birth, although studies have found a small number of immature neuroblasts in newborns. In most cases, these neuroblasts will mature or disappear. Others form a tumor — a neuroblastoma. It isn't clear what causes the genetic mutation that leads to neuroblastoma.
Doctors removed some of Gray's bone marrow, which tested clean of cancer, for a future stem cell transplant. The boy took months of chemotherapy. Then in February, Gray underwent surgery in which doctors planned to remove parts of his tumor. Instead they found the neuroblastoma had died and calcified to several of Gray's organs and his aorta. They left the inactive tumor there because surgery removing is too risky.
Doctors told Doug Everaard this wasn't unusual for neuroblastoma patients.
After a sixth round of chemotherapy, Gray received a transplant of his own stem cells. His father said he later learned the stem cell transplant helped bolster Gray's body after he underwent such an aggressive chemotherapy regimen. The boy remained hospitalized for a month.
Gray underwent radiation in May and got to ring the bell at Children's Hospital, signifying that his treatment is almost over.

Proton therapy
The Everaard family took June off from cancer treatments to attend an AG youth camp, and then Gray started proton therapy in July.
The treatment involves giving Gray special antibody cells that attack the protons that allow neuroblastoma cells to attach to healthy cells and spread.
“Because neuroblastoma is so aggressive, it's like they are trying to take it one step further than just killing the cells themselves,” Jill Everaard said.
After everything Gray has been through, his mother said so far this has been the toughest treatment. If Gray can continue to withstand it, his cancer treatment should be over by the beginning of November. He will still need to go in for regular checkups and tests, so doctors can detect the cancer quickly in case the boy relapses.
Doug Everaard said they want to know they have done everything medically possible to give Gray the best chances.
“Neuroblastoma, when it comes back, each time it's harder to get into remission,” he said.

Coping as a family
In the beginning, Doug Everaard said he was hesitant to ask for help, but as Gray started his treatments, he knew they needed all of the support they could get.
In their darkest moments, Everaard said he has felt others' prayers, and their support has pulled his family through.
Lakehoma Elementary teachers helped support Gray's older bother Seth and visited the family at the hospital. Seth made the honor roll and continued playing basketball, and Everaard said support from friends helped keep the older boy's life as normal as possible.
In the past year, he said he's watched Seth's compassion grow, and through this experience, the brothers have grown closer.
“Seth really takes care of his younger brother,” he said.
Teachers and friends at church worked to raise money to support the family. Mustang High School students also adopted Gray. The Everaards visited with students during an assembly early last school year, and Doug Everaard said after they finished telling their story the crowd in the gymnasium had fallen silent.
Students raised money through their King and Queen of Hearts events for the family and a Relay for Life team raised funds for the American Cancer Society in Gray's honor.
“There are days you don't feel like you can carry yourself, and there are other people carrying you and supporting you,” Everaard said. “The community in Mustang has just been incredible to us.”
The Everaards also receive a steady flow of prayers and well wishes through the website. Several families sent videos of their children praying for Gray. One 5-year-old looks up into her father's camera and tells the Everaard family she hopes Gray feels better soon.
Doug Everaard said these children aren't worrying for Gray, but they are praying for him and loving him.

Knowing the meaning of cancer
Last fall, Everaard said Gray didn't know what having cancer meant. He'd smile up at visitors and say, “I sick,” then laugh and run off and play.
Cancer and the treatments have brought the Everaard family to their knees, but every time Gray has bounced back.
Jill Everaard watches him play with his Chemo Duck, a stuffed animal he received that has a chemotherapy port and a scarf wrapped over its head.
“He says, 'How are you doing? OK,' and then he will pretend like he's flushing his (the duck's) line,” she said. “Then he's, 'You OK?' You feeling OK? He repeats everything he hears. He's hilarious.”
Doug Everaard said Gray has written him a pretend prescription and then explained the directions of how the medication should be taken. He said it amazes him how much Gray has figured out.
Gray is still a typical kid, and he fights them at medicine time. When they are preparing for another inpatient treatment, Everaard said Gray knows.
“He tells us now, 'No, Mama. I'm not going to the hospital,” his father said.
No one is more ready for all of this to be over than Gray, Everaard said. The couple prays for their son to have good health and one day for this year to fade into his distant memory.
The Everaards remain amazed at Gray's resiliency. Doug Everaard said he hopes the Praise4Gray event will be a testament to his son's fight and other children who are facing cancer.
“The music meant a lot to us,” he said. “It's kind of cool to see this come together like that. We feel like it is almost a celebration of Grayson and what he's been through and celebrating people.”