Eli Ligon lights up as he talks about some of his favorite things, including golf, his friends and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

It’s hard to tell from his bright smile and easy temperament, but 13-year-old Eli has cancer.

“It’s nasopharyngeal carcinoma,” said Eli’s mother Carol Ann Ligon. “He has a tumor in his nasal cavity, and it’s in his lymph nodes as well.”

Eli, a Gainesville Middle School student, was diagnosed on March 6. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is especially rare in children, and he is being treated by a rare tumor doctor at Children’s Hospital of Atlanta at Egleston.

“We’re going into his third round of chemo next week,” Carol Ann Ligon said. “Following that, he’ll have six weeks of radiation and chemo combined.”

Costs of such treatment and the regular trips to Atlanta can add up, and friends of the Ligon family have gathered in droves to show their support.

Friday, a benefit concert will be held at Midtown Greenway Amphitheater on Grove Street in Gainesville, and all proceeds will benefit Eli.

“It’s a benefit concert to raise money for the Pray4Eli fund,” Carol Ann Ligon said. “Honestly, that fund is just to help with expenses, especially for travel expenses and then anything that is needed during his treatment.”

Eli’s father, Rusty Ligon, said the entire community has been supportive of Eli, his 9-year-old sister Emily and their parents.

“We’ve all been very humbled by the support that we’ve been shown,” Rusty Ligon said. “We’ve really been blown away and feel
very blessed.”

In March, a group of more than 200 friends, classmates, family members and more showed up at the Ligon house to visit the family. Rusty Ligon said they had a photographer get on the roof to take a picture of the whole group in the front yard.

Eli said a group of his friends from second grade decided to recreate a goofy picture of his eighth birthday party, to celebrate his 13th birthday last week.

“We got together last weekend and recreated the picture,” he said. “That was just really cool that they did that.”

Carol Ann Ligon said Eli’s spirits have been “wonderful.”

“He’s got a really positive attitude about everything,” she said. “I think that throughout the entire experience his friends have really come together to help him a lot, and they’re really there for him.”

Rusty Ligon said people make signs and posters and stop by to visit when they can.

“They’ve really just been there for me,” Eli said. “They’re doing everything they can to help.”

Eli has even been contacted by a surprise supporter: University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban.

“He’s actually going to get the opportunity to go meet Nick Saban in August,” Carol Ann Ligon said. “They’ve scheduled that already and he is super excited about that. And Nick Saban and members of the team signed a football and sent it to him.”

The football, which now sits in a display case in their home, was also signed by former Gainesville High School student and Crimson Tide quarterback Blake Sims.

“That’s a prized possession for him,” Eli’s mother said.

To show support for the Ligon family, the community is invited to attend Friday’s benefit concert. Children can attend for free, and adults are asked to make a $20 donation. Tap It will provide beverages and the public is encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets.

Pray4Eli T-shirts, bearing a Gainesville Red Elephant with a striped bow tie, will also be available for purchase.

Carol Ann Ligon said she is especially grateful to those behind the Pray4Eli fund and benefit concert. She thanked Bill and Niki Holcomb, Allen and Meg Nivens, Casey and Kacey Cochran, Melvin Cooper, Ryan and Zack Thompson from Tap It, Marty Nix, Brett Jockell and Don Head, who worked on the concert event’s stage and lighting.

But most of all, she asks for and is grateful to the community for their prayers.

“The T-shirts are kind of what started it all,” she said. “And now, truly, I don’t think I can go anywhere in town where I don’t see that T-shirt. It’s everywhere I go, and it really has been amazing to see this support for Eli. Just going to the grocery store and seeing it, or going to the pharmacy and seeing it. That’s amazing.”