ROWLEY - Teenager Jonathan DeAlmeida was looking forward to beginning high school at Whittier Technical School last fall, where he planned to enlist in the school's robotics program and try out for the football team.

That was before he was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a form of cancer that was initially nothing more than a pain between his shoulder blades.

His mother, lifelong Rowley resident Melinda DeAlmeida, says she took Jonathan to the pediatrician last summer when he first began complaining of pain. The doctor suspected a pulled muscle, and advised her to treat his symptoms with Motrin. When the pain persisted beyond a week she took him for an x-ray, which again failed to reveal an obvious source.

But the unimaginable was confirmed just one week later, when Jonathan collapsed at the home of his grandparents, telling them he'd lost feeling in his lower body. The cause of Jonathan's collapse was a tumor growing on his spinal cord, discovered by a doctor at Anna Jaques Hospital that night.

Within 12 hours, Jonathan was undergoing surgery at Children's Hospital in Boston, where doctors were able to remove 75 percent of the tumor. Except one rare visit home at Thanksgiving, he's been there ever since, fighting the cancer, and for the use of his lower body. He's doing very well in terms of regaining body strength, according to Melinda, surpassing expectations physically to accomplish more than doctors expected.

"He's already surpassing everything they said he wouldn't do," she says. "Right now he's in a wheelchair, but he did stand on his own, which they thought would never happen."

Melinda says the hospital staff has been wonderful to Jonathan, treating him as their own. The family, in turn, makes an effort to have someone there with him all the time.

"Between me and my husband, one of us is there every day, so he's not alone," Melinda says.

Despite their efforts, Jonathan wants desperately to come home. When the staff asks him if he needs anything, he replies, "Yeah, I need home."

"Initially, he was jokes and laughing," Melinda says. "Right now he is a little down. He just finished radiation, and he's halfway through his chemotherapy cycle. It's hard for him to eat, and to swallow. But he realizes we're almost there, and he's beginning to get better."

At issue is his rehabilitation, and ability to take vital medications while at home. Melinda says Jonathan has always had a hard time taking medicine, gagging on cold remedies and antibiotics from the time he was two years old. The medicines prescribed to fight his cancer are much tougher to handle, so she and her husband made the difficult decision to insert a tube to ensure he was getting what he needed. That has to be overseen at the hospital.

"We're trying to get him home for Christmas," Melinda says. "His bedroom was moved downstairs. The landlady had the rugs redone downstairs. We painted and gave him new curtains."

Melinda stresses the primary concern is that every decision they make be in the interest of Jonathan getting better faster, even if it's more difficult in the short term. That could mean Christmas at the hospital. She says Jonathan is more concerned about his two sisters this Christmas than for himself right now.

"He did ask for an iPod, but he feels he's cost us enough money and didn't really ask for much," she said.

In October he asked his mother to "make sure the girls get to the (Topsfield) fair this year."

Now, Melinda says, he's concerned that his two sisters have a proper Christmas. She is amazed at his ability to roll with each new challenge as they arise.

"You're fighting a fight I don't know if I could," she tells him.

But it's a fight for the family too, as they struggle to overcome each new challenge. Finances are a little-discussed aspect of their fight, but Melinda knows the family is getting deeper and deeper into debt with each passing day. Jonathan's first two nights in the hospital cost more than $100,000, but she's grateful for the hospital, which accepts just $10 a week as long as payments are consistent.

"Our big thing is the gas going back and forth to Boston and parking fees," Melinda says. She says she and her husband have struggled for years to earn enough to move out of Rowley's Affordable Housing at Depot Way, and make room for another family, but "something always seems to come up."

Melinda and her family have received some help from Rowley resident Joanna Lent, whose young son Ethan recently returned home from Children's Hospital after an extended battle with leukemia. Lent surprised Melinda's family last week with a basket full of gift cards given by members of the community to help in their time of need. When she asked for a list of people to thank for such gifts, Lent told her there was no need - it was her turn to receive.

Still, Melinda wants them to know how grateful she is. "They say not to thank them, but I'd just like to say thank you to the people who have been generous and have helped us in our time of need."

Well wishes to Jonathan may be sent to the DeAlmeida Family, 11 Depot Way, Rowley, Mass.