'No matter what.' Johnston County mother of five battles rare form cancer

WENDELL, N.C. (WTVD) -- "No matter what."

It's the motto of a Johnston County mother of five in the fight of her life after being diagnosed with stage four cancer.

Jennifer Pervis is awaiting a trip to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston in two weeks hoping to buy her some time for her children

Doctors there are the only ones who agreed to aggressively treat her form of kidney cancer and the family needs help with traveling, treatment, and recovery in Texas.

"I know that I'm going to heaven and I'm okay with it but I just want my children to be okay," Jennifer said. "They are my everything and I know being a parent is so hard and they think I'm hard on them but that's because I want them to be great members of society."

She has five children. Her oldest is in high school. Adam is a rising senior at Corinth Holders High School and Gloria is right behind him in 11th grade.

"It's devastating and there are no other words to describe it," Gloria said.

The journey started for the Pervis family last March. That is when Jennifer was first diagnosed with Stage 3 Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma, a kidney cancer.

In March, doctors told her she was in remission. But two months later, the cancer came back.

Clear cell type of renal cancer tends to be more aggressive and spreads faster.

"We all live day by day like we have all the time in the world but in all reality, we don't," Jennifer said.

They've sold t-shirts and bracelets with #nomatterwhat on it.

"It's tough but we're managing and trying to keep our head above the clouds," said Joseph Pervis, Jennifer's husband.

Jennifer is determined to watch her son graduate high school--no matter what.

"We have a long way and still have a long way to go," Jennifer said.

Joseph left his job as a truck driver to be closer to his wife and took a job at Corinth Holders High School, where Adam and Gloria are.

They leave for Houston on July 10th