Most families never expect to watch their child go through cancer.

But when a tragedy like that does strike, sometimes they find an extended family they didn't think they had.

Most of one 6th grade class at a La Crosse Elementary School took a trip to Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center to give their classmate, who is battling a very rare form of cancer, a very special gift.

As the 6th graders filed into Gundersen Lutheran, Shai Shay laid in her bed in the Intensive Care Unit.

Shai has a rare form of cancer and can't risk getting germs, so she talked to her classmates by video conference. And although they couldn't be in the same room her friends, they made sure Shai knew where she belonged.

Shai was diagnosed with Undefined Cercoma at the end of September. She just finished her first round of chemotherapy and is about to start her second.

Her mom says there's was one thing Shai didn't want to let go.

"For a girl, having to lose her hair? Trying to hang onto the only last thing she could. Everything else she didn't have control over, that was the one last thing she kinda did."

Her classmates came to help her through it.

And one person's sacrifice...

"I shaved my head..

was especially meaningful...

"because my best friend has cancer."

And the support from her friends helped give Shai the strength to shave her own head.

"It meant everything. Left a smile on her face. Me thinking she'd have her head shaved and be crying through the whole thing. Didn't cry once.It made shai happy.

"It'll make her feel better that us as a class did it because then she won't feel any different."

"I just can't believe all these kids showed up...they showed up for cancer, they don't have it and they act like they did...."

And while the kids said, 't's only hair,' really, it's so much more.

Shai's classmates have been busy trying to help her and her family as she gets ready for her second round of chemo.

They're hosting a benefit on November 21st at the school's gym.