Looking at the North family, hearing their children play and seeing the smiles on their faces, one can almost believe a year of hardship hasn’t left a mark on them.

But there’s a story beneath the smiles: unemployment, diabetes, cancer, the loss of their home, and bills that threaten to overwhelm them.

“We’re just kind of hanging in there,” Kristy said. “It’s been a nightmare, but we’re a family. We stick together.”

The Norths have been selected as the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin Christmas Benefit Fund family for 2009. With help from the Transcript-Bulletin and its readers, a Christmas the family thought was beyond them may now become a reality.

The family includes parents Jeremy, 28, and Kristy, 24; daughter Alexa, 5, and son Jaydon, 2. Kristy was born and raised in Tooele and Jeremy is from Grantsville. They have been together for seven years and married for two.

Last January, Kristy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Then, in March, daughter Alexa was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and spent a week and a half in the hospital.

In March, doctors surgically removed Kristy’s cancer rather than removing the ovaries.

“When you lose your ovaries so young they have to put you on estrogen so you still have hormones,” Kristy said. “The estrogen is linked to breast cancer and when they give it to younger patients they end up with breast cancer.”

And even though her ovaries weren’t removed, it was discovered in July she had breast cancer. A month later she had a lumpectomy. And by September doctors discovered the ovarian cancer had returned as well. She will now have to have her ovaries removed and receive chemotherapy and radiation for both cancers beginning next year.

“The only reason we’ve been prolonging it is we have high medical bills and the hospital won’t do procedures until we have 75 percent of the cost of the surgery up front,” Kristy said. “So we’re just kind of waiting around to see if we can get this Medicaid insurance now that we don’t have the house.”

This isn’t Kristy’s first bout with cancer. She had a partial hysterectomy after having cervical cancer in 2007.

Alexa takes insulin and has to get her kidneys and pancreas checked every three months.

“She’s having a rough time, but she’s 5 and sometimes she doesn’t like to have as many shots as she has to,” Kristy said. “It’s kind of rough, but she’s working through it.”

In February, Jeremy lost his job at Clean Harbors, where he had worked in incineration for a year.

“We’ve been dealing with that and he’s been trying to get a job and working wherever and for whoever he can,” Kristy said.

Jeremy even traveled to Colorado to try to land a job, but that didn’t pan out either. The couple would prefer to stay in the Tooele Valley, close to their supportive family, they say.

“It’s hard enough now and it’d be even harder to take them [the children] away,” Jeremy said.

Kristy is a stay-at-home mom.

“He’s always had a good job so I could stay home,” she said.

Overwhelming medical bills and other expenses forced the couple to put their Tooele home up for sale three weeks ago to avoid foreclosure. They were five months behind on payments. The home is still listed and they are temporarily living with Kristy’s grandmother, Linda Snyder, in Tooele.

“I don’t have medical insurance so we’ve been paying everything out-of-pocket,” she said.

A needed CT scan to make sure the cancer hasn’t spread to the kidneys will cost $2,500, according to Jeremy.

“It’s been a crazy year,” Jeremy added.

Kristy said she and Jeremy have been stressed about being able to give their kids Christmas this year, though she says material things aren’t important.

The family’s Christmas wishes are not many. Jeremy said his son, Jaydon, would like a Power Wheels car. He also enjoys Hot Wheels. Alexa likes toy horses and Barbies. And she’d like a bike.

Parents Jeremy and Kristy would like a new set of tires for their 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer to replace its bald tires.

The couple were surprised and happy to be chosen as the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin Christmas Benefit Fund family.

“We thought there’s a lot worse out there,” Kristy said. “This is amazing.”

To help the North family, please drop off donated items or send money to the Tooele Transcript Bulletin, 58 N. Main St., Tooele, Utah 84074, with items clearly marked “Christmas Benefit Fund.” The deadline for donations is Dec. 23 by 10 a.m.

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com