CUMBERLAND — For Christmas this year, Rachael Sensabaugh got a clean cancer scan and an engagement ring.

“That was the best Christmas I could have ever asked for,” said Sensabaugh, 21, whose four-year fight with bone cancer — and health insurance companies — has inspired local residents to donate thousands of dollars to help.

With the worst, God willing, behind her, Sensabaugh is urging the community to wrap its arms around another young cancer patient, her best friend’s sister.

Kayla Spiker, 22, of Cumberland, learned in November that she has hypoplastic myelodysplastic syndrome, a form of leukemia. She’s receiving chemotherapy treatments five consecutive days each month at West Virginia University Hospitals and is scheduled for a bone marrow transplant in early 2010, said her mother, Allison Lindsay.

“We can’t really afford to stay overnight because the prices up there are ridiculous,” said Lindsay, who is organizing a Jan. 16 benefit dance to help raise money for expenses. Spiker, who is on leave from her job as a 911 dispatcher in Allegany County, could lose health benefits within the year, her mother said.

“What we’re looking at right now is gas money and her medicine,” Lindsay said. “She has to go twice a week to the Cumberland Cancer Center for her white blood counts. Usually once a week she has to have two units of blood. The week after chemo she has to have a shot. ... There’s co-pays for everything.”

Sensabaugh knows what the family is facing. She was a senior at Allegany High School when she was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. Last year, her family fought to get insurance companies to pay for experimental treatments, which doctors later determined wouldn’t help.

“My family’s already been through this,” said Sensabaugh, who is best friends with Kayla’s sister, 21-year-old Kristen Simpson. The women’s mothers also went to school together.

“It’s really scary to be at the beginning and not know what to expect,” Sensabaugh said. “It’s hard enough to deal with treatment, but having to worry whether you have the money to finish the treatments, that’s the worst feeling in the world.”

Area residents donated almost $6,000 over the summer to help Sensabaugh.

“So many people were so gracious to me,” said Sensabaugh, who hopes Spiker will receive similar support.

For now, Spiker and her family are riding on the joy of learning that her sister can donate bone marrow. “That was a great Christmas present,” Lindsay said.

Contact Kristin Harty Barkley at kharty@times-news.com.