Portsmouth, Va. - We shine our spotlight on Miche Alston, a Portsmouth middle school teacher's assistant who volunteers after school and is the mother of a two-year-old all while battling cancer.
When we walked into her classroom with our cameras rolling, she was a little shocked.
We explained that we received an email about her from civics teacher Karla Jakubowski. She read a portion of her email.
"I am writing to you today to nominate a very special lady, Miche Alston, who works as an instructional assistant at Churchland Middle School."
Miche is battling a rare form of cancer. She has had her toe amputated and a bone removed from her left foot due to the cancer and can only walk with crutches or a special walking boot. Miche is also enduring treatments of chemo in this battle.
Karla stresses Miche doesn't let her battle affect her in the classroom.
"She never misses a beat, never complains and always has a bright smile every day she comes to school."
And even after her day is finished in the classroom, Miche doesn't head home. You'll find her in the cafeteria helping out with study hall for student athletes. Even after she's wrapped up there, she still does not head home.
Miche, who played basketball in high school, volunteers with the girl's basketball team at Churchland Middle. She says it's important to be involved.
"I should be here for the girls. They need someone like me to tell them stories I had in the past, show them how to be a student athlete, how to act in class, academics are important-things like that," says Miche.
For those reasons we presented Miche with a People Taking Action Award along with a $300 Visa gift card from out community partner Southern Bank. Miche, who fought back tears was very grateful.
"I'm appreciative, this is awesome. It's nice to be appreciated, you know for what you do; not a lot of people know what you go through daily," says Miche.
