A Lifetime of Undying Devotion To a Life Tragically Cut Short

When Justin returned to North Stafford in February 2007 for the second semester of their junior year, Courtney sold 300 T-shirts to students and faculty members that read, "Welcome Back Justin!" She walked him through the halls, her hand in his, and gave him kisses on the cheek when they would part ways for class.

Last August, Justin found another mass on his neck. A biopsy revealed cancerous lymph nodes in his armpits, chest, shoulders and lungs. Marcie Weil, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Inova Fairfax Hospital who initially diagnosed Justin's cancer, said the best option for a cure was a bone marrow transplant. The procedure would cost roughly $650,000, but it would allow him to receive extremely high doses of chemotherapy.

The treatment made Justin lose his hair. He developed painful mouth sores and his legs ached so badly that he sometimes walked with a limp. He lost his appetite. He had diarrhea. His bones throbbed.

"You see him slowly deteriorate, and it's torture," said Justin's father, Craig Whitaker, who raised Justin after he and wife Shelia divorced 13 years ago. "It breaks your heart into 80 million pieces."

Courtney helped inject Justin with medicine through a tube in his chest, then flushed the tube to keep it clean. She made trips to the doctor's office, where she would lay next to Justin on the examination table, snuggling close.

"When he got diagnosed with cancer she could have just said, 'Hey, you've got cancer, you're not worthy anymore,' " Craig Whitaker said. "And she has turned it around and been his best friend, best of everything."

The bone marrow transplant -- often a last resort for cancer patients -- did not work for Justin.

By January, the cancer had spread below his diaphragm. The disease was in his pelvis, abdomen, chest, armpits and bone marrow. At that point, Weil said, "There were no other options."

"There's times where it gets really hard," Courtney said. "Like those questions of why? Why him? Why now, during our senior year? I try to stay as positive as I can because I know he's positive. He helps me portray that strong image that I have."

Craig Whitaker's insurance covered 90 percent of his son's care, but with Justin's medical bills nearing more than $3 million, Courtney intensified her efforts to raise money.

In February, she spearheaded a fundraiser at North Stafford entitled "Dinner and a Show: A Night for Believers." The event included a buffet dinner, skits performed by students and a slideshow that made Justin burst with laughter. At the end of the night, Justin donned a graduation robe, walked across the stage in the North Stafford auditorium and received his high school diploma.

"On a scale of one to 10, Courtney's a million," Craig Whitaker said. "She cares about everybody else. It's never about herself. It was all about Justin, Justin, Justin. Nothing was ever about her."