A Clearfield school is rallying to help a student who’s fighting cancer in her blood.

We have more on how a teacher’s suspicions helped lead to the surprising diagnosis.

Kathy Shugarts has taught a class of kindergartners for 17 years and her experience gave her a strange feeling. Around Halloween, she noticed one girl seemed sick, and her skin looked different.

“They thought that she was just having some allergy issues and I felt otherwise, so I sent her back to the nurse,” says Shugarts.

Shugarts says doctors did a blood test on Allison Colna, 5, as a precaution, and it came back with leukemia. 

“I never expected that to be the result,” says Shugarts, tearing up.

Allison’s been out of school for a few weeks receiving chemo treatments at Geisinger. Her teacher visited her at the hospital.

While treatments could go on for three years, Shugarts says the early diagnosis shows Allison has an excellent chance of survival.

“You don’t want to see anyone diagnosed with such a disease, let alone such a young child that is just full of awe and wonder,” says Shugarts.

Students at her school brought in a cow’s weight in coins last week, donating more than $10,000 to Allison’s family.

The boys won the coin contest and everyone was treated to ice cream. 

“It was an amazing collection of coins, an amazing outpouring of love from the students and the community,” says Shugarts.

Students in Allison’s class have also been wearing these bracelets that say “ALL in for Allison.” ALL also refers to the type of leukemia that she has.

“It’s all everybody’s talking about is Allison and making cards for her. Daily, we get a new pack of cards sent to the office that the kids are making. They’re using their free time,” says principal Mary Mike Sayres.

Sayres says it’s brought a school with about 1,200 kids closer. Even kids up to sixth grade are getting involved.

“When we went around to collect some of the money, one of the buckets had a picture of Allison, and so all of the kids were saying, ‘Is that Allison, can I see her?’ and they’re like, ‘Oh, I remember seeing her,’ or, ‘She rode my bus,'” says Sayres.

Now, they’re all pulling for Allison to be strong and come back soon.