"Cancer sucks, but Jayce is tougher."

Jayce's mother Tracy Kringen of Williston wears these words emblazoned on the front of a deep blue shirt as proof that her 7-year-old son will survive brain cancer.

The hints of the cancer bubbled to the surface when Jayce began vomiting his first day of kindergarten.

"We thought it was just nerves," she said.

The headaches and vomiting continued, however, and she knew it had to be something more. "I'd rub his head with an ice pack and he'd go to sleep and when he'd wake up, he'd be fine," she said.

Kringen spent time on medical Web sites typing in Jayce's symptoms. As she continued to enter in what was plaguing Jayce, the same two words kept popping up on the screen.

Brain tumor.

"I said to my husband, 'brain tumor is still on there', and Stuart said 'Just get off the computer, you're going to get yourself all worked up'," she said.

She took Jayce to see a local doctor and, after Jayce's CAT scan, continued on her day by doing a little grocery shopping. Just after checking out from the store, she received a phone call from the doctor asking her to come back.

"She said they found something and we need to do an MRI," she said.

The doctor waited with the family for the results of the MRI. The doctor informed them they had two hours to pack and get on a plane to travel to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

There on Nov. 14, Jayce was diagnosed with stage four anaplastic medulloblastoma. The Mayo doctors removed all of the brain tumor, but Jayce needed radiation treatment until June of this year.

"It's anaplastic," she said. "Which means it can come back."

A Make-A-Wish Bon Voyage party for Jayce and his family is from 2-3 p.m. on Sunday at Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church at 1024 Sixth St. in Williston, with refreshments served. The family is heading to Hawaii, a place that was special to Jayce's grandfather, who died of cancer three years ago.

A Web site for Jayce shows the radiation helmet he wore for over an hour five days a week. In a book, his mother writes it buckles to the table and is extremely uncomfortable.

Also less than comforting are the medical expenses, which totalled almost $1 million.

However, the community stepped up to help.

"Everyone got really busy in this town right away," she said.

Cory and Kristi Sidel had a fundraiser dinner and auction in December and put cans for donations all over town. The fundraiser brought in around $50,000.

"It was really big," Kringen said.

She said not having to worry about money as much helped ease the stress. All the while, Jayce continued his treatments, which he completed in June. He was released from the hospital on July 4 after battling infections and being below his target weight.

While he was hospitalized, his doctors sent his information to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, with Katie Wyman of the Make-A-Wish Williston chapter contacted him.

"I think he's a wonderful child," Wyman said. "It's tragic that he's been diagnosed with brain cancer. It will affect him for the rest of his life."

The wish decision is left up to the child, she said. The question was where would Jayce want to go?

"A lot of our wishes are travel related," said Emily Maresca of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Dakota, adding most of the wishes are to go to Disney World.

However, Jayce's wish did not involve Disney World. Instead, it revolved around the stories his grandfather told him about a place he said he would always want to return to, Hawaii.

"It was really important to him that the whole family got to go," his mom said.

The Hawaii trip is the first vacation the entire family is able to attend, Tracy and Stuart Kringen, Jayce, daughters, Casey Lorenz, 21, Courtney, 20, Jolyssa, 11 and Marissa, 9. It is also the first time most of the family has ever seen the ocean.

"I want to see sea turtles," Jayce said.

Other family members were looking forward to other highlights.

"Is there shopping there?" Jolyssa asked.

Her mother said yes.

"Then I'm looking forward to shopping," she said.

The trip is funded with donations from Packers Plus, American Petroleum Institute and past wish child, Morgan Kolling, Davenport, N.D.. Each donated $6,000 to Jayce's wish.

A Make-A-Wish press release states that Kolling, 8, also had brain cancer and went to Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Kolling enjoyed the behind-the-scenes trip so much she wanted to help other children feel the way she did.

She drew pictures and sold them to doctors, with her school also getting involved to raise more money for Make-A-Wish. The drawings are now on cards to help raise money for the foundation and are on the Make-A-Wish Web site. Her drawings have raised $20,000.

She died in June, a few months after her wish was granted.

Jayce was originally confused about how someone so small could do something so big. After his mother explained it to him, he decided to take on projects of his own. They're selling "Cancer sucks" T-shirts at the Williston Convention and Visitor's Bureau to raise money to bring a dog park to the area.

"He loves animals," his mom said, adding he became very attached to the therapy dogs at the Mayo Clinic.

For more information about Jayce or to make a donation in tribute to Jayce, visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/jaycekringen. For more information about Make-A-Wish or to donate to the foundation visit www.northdakota.wish.org.