DECATUR, Ga. — A high school senior who began her life facing a great challenge is graduating Tuesday near the top of her class.
Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen was at Southwest DeKalb High School in Decatur where he learned the salutatorian spent week after week in hospitals.
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Southwest DeKalb High School senior Jesseca McNair is about to graduate, but it has been a very long road.
“The surgeries. The blood transfusions. Even small things can trigger a large crisis,” McNair said.
McNair was born with sickle cell anemia. She has suffered through a great deal of pain over the years, had many, many hospital visits, and missed a lot of school.
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“She has been fighting all her life,” Dr. Gayle McNair said.
Gayle McNair knows Jesseca McNair better than anyone. She’s Southwest DeKalb High’s assistant principal and Jesseca’s mom.
She says some worried it would be difficult for Jesseca McNair to graduate at all, and it was.
The 17-year-old allowed nothing to stop her, which is why she is her school’s salutatorian, among the best and brightest. Things will continue to be hard, but nothing is too hard for Jesseca McNair.
‘I’ve done so much despite having sickle cell. I fought the odds and I’m very blessed. I think everyone can achieve that no matter what,” Jesseca McNair said.
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This fall, Jesseca McNair will be off to Georgia Tech and will major in biology. She wants to do research in the field of medicine.
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