DANVILLE — A teenage girl, such as Emily Shouse, should be out learning to drive, going to parties and marching in the high school band.

“No 16-year-old girl wants to be sick in a hospital,” said Shannon LaBounty, a friend of the Shouse family.

LaBounty is organizing a benefit Sunday to help the family pay its numerous medical bills. Emily was diagnosed in February with acute promyelocytic leukemia, a rare cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

She is undergoing experimental treatment at St. Jude Midwest Affiliate clinic at the Children’s Hospital of Illinois in Peoria, and was expected to take her final round of treatment this week.

She is a junior at Danville High School, but has been unable to attend classes.

To help the family with mounting medical and transportation bills, LaBounty has organized a poker run for Sunday, followed by music and raffles that night.

The ride leaves Gutterridge Harley-Davidson at noon. The poker run is for anyone, not just motorcyclists. The fee is $10 per hand, and that includes a meal and entrance to the I&I State Line Tavern later that night.

Stops include Julee’s Shooting Star in Westville, Red’s in St. Bernice, Ind., Pop a Tops in Cayuga, Ind., Bar Noble in Covington, Ind., and the I&I.

Music by Blanche Talley will start at 6 p.m. at the I&I, along with a raffle, 50-50 drawing and food. Admission is $5.

LaBounty suggested people come out to the I&I and enjoy the music if they’re not able to participate in the poker run.

Emily and her parents, Dave and Lori Shouse, probably won’t be able to attend, LaBounty said.

Referring to the Shouses, she said, “These people have never asked for anything from anybody. We’re going to do anything we can to help.”

Emily’s family is amazed at the help they’ve received, including a taco bar benefit at Edison Elementary School and an ice cream social put on by First Presbyterian Church, which is the family’s church.

“It’s just overwhelming. It’s just been astounding,” Lori Shouse said. “We’re lucky we have such a great support system.”

The family has received gift cards for gas and food from strangers, she added.

Emily’s problems started in February when she suffered a severe headache that wouldn’t go away, and started running a low-grade fever. A CAT scan didn’t reveal anything.

One night, she was extremely lethargic, and her parents — thinking she had meningitis — took her to an emergency room in Champaign. For the first time, she had blood work, which revealed cancer cells rampant in her blood.

The doctor recognized it as a rare cancer — one he hadn’t seen in six years, Shouse said. Emily, who had started hemorrhaging, was transported to Peoria immediately.

The cancer is very aggressive, Shouse said, and only six days had passed from the first headache to the hemorrhaging.

In the past, the mortality rate was 100 percent, and the disease has a high rate of relapse with conventional therapy. Emily was able to get into an experimental program, which includes treatment with arsenic.

If her blood count was within range, she was expected to have the fifth round of chemotherapy this week. Then she will be on maintenance, taking chemo pills at home and going to the clinic once a week for blood work. She will be part of the study for many years.

Lori quit her job, except for some part-time work, at a chiropractor’s office so she could do all of her daughter’s home-health care. Dave works at Ball Aerosol. The family also includes Grayson, a freshman at Danville High, and Ryan, a second-grader at Northeast Elementary.

Emily is a member of the marching band at DHS and the First Presbyterian youth group. She was looking forward to getting her driver’s license when she became ill.

With the last round of chemo, Emily’s mother is optimistic.

“We can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.

FYI

The benefit poker run will start with registration at 11 a.m. Sunday at Gutterridge Harley-Davidson and the ride starts at noon. At 6 p.m., Blanche Talley will play at the I&I State Line Tavern on East Main Street, past the prison. There will be raffles and food; admission is $5.

A fund has been set up at First Financial, 1 Towne Centre, in Emily Shouse’s name.

You can learn more on the Facebook page “Supporting the Shouses.”