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Cheerleader, battling cancer, gets orange roses from football team

Posted at 2:34 PM, Sep 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-08 14:34:04-04

PALO CEDRO, California -- When a member of the family is ill, everybody pitches in to help. That's true no matter if it's your relatives -- or the local high school football team.

When a cheerleader from Foothill High School in Palo Cedro, California, was diagnosed with leukemia, her football family stepped up big time. One by one, all 57 members of the team laid an orange rose at Ashley Adamietz's feet before a game last week.

Orange is the color of leukemia awareness; Ashley was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in August.

Adamietz tweeted she was "shocked, overwhelmed, and speechless," not just by the football team's beautiful gesture, but also by all the support she's gotten during her cancer battle.

Football player Ryan Caetano organized the rose idea, and he told CNN affiliate KRCR it was just the team's way of letting Ashley know they're behind her.

"She's part of the cougar family, so why not let her know that we're all here for her," he said. "We are. So I wanted to let that be known to everybody, and especially to her, for what she's going through."'

Head coach Joey Brown said it was the family taking "care of family business."