As so many other girls in the south and southwest suburbs are doing this time of the year, Matteson resident Torrianne “Torri” Stewart left Friday in a limo to attend her prom.

But unlike for so many other high school students, it wasn’t that long ago the idea of attending prom was, for her, a dream that seemed out of reach.

The 17-year-old Bloom High School student was diagnosed about a year ago with a rare form of cancer, and just trying to finish her senior year has been a struggle.

“In my mind, I was thinking I wasn’t going to be ready for prom,” Stewart said.

With the help of two area business owners, however, her dream of going to the prom came true, with the two men covering all of her prom-related expenses. Stewart spent the day Friday being chauffeured in a 2018 Cadillac Escalade to appointments for getting her hair and nails done and for a dress fitting, then to Georgios Banquets in Orland Hills for the main event, the theme of which is “A Night in Paris.”

Destiny Henson, also a senior at Bloom, went with Stewart to the prom. Stewart said she and Henson have been best friends since fourth grade “and now we are going to graduate together.”

As Stewart was preparing to leave Friday, her mother, Awanna Stewart, talked about what a “blessing” it was to see her daughter able to attend the prom.

“It’s been real rough,” she said of her daughter’s illness and the chemotherapy and radiation treatments she has undergone. “I’m glad she got well enough to be going to prom.”

Henson’s mother, LaToya Henson, of Chicago Heights, said her daughter has “been a great support” to Torri Stewart and that “they are more than best friends, they are sisters.”

Stewart had excelled academically at Bloom and had planned to try out for the girls basketball team. She had been active in her church, Christ Temple Church No. 2 in Ford Heights, singing in the choir, dancing with the praise team and mentoring children involved in the youth ministry.

Her problems began when she suffered ear pain and headaches in April 2017. Her prescribed medicine didn’t help her condition, so she was referred to a specialist. That May she was diagnosed with stage 4 nasopharyngeal cancer, a rare type of head and neck cancer.

She began chemotherapy treatments during the summer, and although she has completed treatments, she still suffers the side effects of them, including hair loss and weight loss, and Stewart also requires a feeding tube.

Her mom said her daughter is not yet cancer-free but was unsure whether she would require further treatments.

Stewart tried returning to classes at the start of the current school year but had to leave in October.

Although Stewart was able to do some work from home, her grades suffered. She had been accustomed to getting A’s and B’s and maintaining a 3.5 GPA, and Stewart said algebra and trigonometry are her best subjects.

She went back to school this month, and her “grades are back up to what they used to be,” and she expects to graduate with honors at the May 24 ceremony, she said.

Stewart’s stepfather was killed last year in Indiana, just a week after Stewart had visited him, and she lost her grandfather to natural causes and her favorite uncle to diabetes, Awanna Stewart said.

The teen’s mom, who works as a nurse, cares for her and a 7-year-old son, Tramane. She has been trying to shoulder the costs of running the household as well as the mounting medical bills, she said.

W & W Towing owner Early Walker said he was told about the Torri Stewart and her mom and how they were “struggling with medical bills,” and he invited the girl and her family to visit him at his home.

Walker conveyed their story to Sean Howard, media spokesman for some south suburban municipalities and local elected officials. Howard and Walker agreed to cover the Stewart’s prom expenses.

“(Stewart’s) struggle, testimony and strong will to beat this cancer had all of us in tears and encouraged to help,” Howard said.

It’s not the first time that Walker has given back to the communities that his business serves.

In December, Walker treated two Chicago youths to a Christmas shopping spree just weeks after they had lost their mother to gun violence, and over Mother’s Day weekend in 2016, employees of the towing firm distributed roses to moms, some of whom had lost children to gun violence, in communities such as Dixmoor, Dolton and Hazel Crest.

Stewart said she hopes to study medicine at DePaul, Loyola or Northwestern, although the drop in her grades hurt her chances of being accepted.

Howard said he has contacted DePaul to ask that it review Stewart’s academic transcript, and he is hopeful that DePaul, Loyola or Northwestern would consider offering her an academic scholarship and take into account her hardship.

Academically, he said, Stewart “really didn’t miss a beat.”

A fundraising concert has been organized for Stewart, featuring gospel singer Bobbi Lane, that will take place at 7 p.m. May 5 at Prairie State College’s conference center, 202 S. Halsted St., Chicago Heights.

Before she left Friday for the prom, Cliff Taylor, president of InsureSource and co-founder of the Gloria J. Taylor Foundation, presented Stewart with $1,000 toward college, and trustees from Dolton and Olympia Fields each gave her $250.

Stewart said that while at church during the Christmas holiday last year, God spoke to her and told her to stop feeling sorry for herself and to press forward. She went home and told her mom she intended to graduate from high school on time but, because of the family’s financial burden, didn’t talk to her mom about her dream to attend the prom.

Stewart said “God is using me as an example” and “God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers.”

To others like her with cancer, Stewart has an upbeat message.

“It’s going to get better. The storm, it’s going to pass, and it’s going to get sunny eventually,” she said. “All you have to do is have a positive mentality, think positive.”

mnolan@southtownstar.com

Twitter @mnolan_j