PINGREE GROVE – For two years, 6-year-old Ella Van Gheem has battled. She’s undergone intensive chemotherapy and impromptu check-ins at the hospital and has lost her hair.

Ella’s leukemia diagnosis in August 2010 floored the Van Gheem family of Gilberts. But with the help of family and friends, the Van Gheems were determined Ella would recover from the blood cancer.

Her support network was on full display Thursday afternoon at Cambridge Lakes Charter School, where Ella is a first-grader. The school’s first- and second-graders held a rally for Ella in honor of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, which ends Sunday.