Draper -- Willow Springs Elementary second-grader Mark Jeanes was lying in a hospital bed, too sick to walk, when his schoolmates took part in a fund-raising Buddy Run for him last week.

The 7-year-old couldn't hear the students' impromptu chants of support as they walked laps around their Draper school: "Mark! Mark! Mark!" and "Let's go, Mark! Let's go!" (clap, clap, clap).

But his mother, Lynette Jeanes, and brother, Scott Cole, were there, taking in the scene, and they couldn't wait to tell Mark about it.

"I don't know how many kids -- too many to count -- they're all cheering for my little brother, and he doesn't realize that, and he's not here to see that," said Scott, a Crescent View Middle School ninth-grader. "But if he was here, he would definitely be as emotional as we are."

A teary-eyed Lynette Jeanes hugged Buddy Run participants as they passed by in pairs, tied together three-legged-style.

"I'm just so overwhelmed,"she said. "I just can't believe the support and love, and people just bonding together and trying to help somebody that needs help."

Lisa Hodson, Mark's teacher, helped organize the Buddy Run.

"It brings tears to your eyes," she said of students chant Mark's name.

Mark has been in the hospital for more than two months, and until Jan. 23, his illness was a mind-boggling mystery.

"They tried every test in the book and there was nothing conclusive," his mother said.

After a month-long stay in the hospital, Mark had exploratory surgery.

"The doctor just kind of closed him up and said, 'We're really sorry,'" Jeanes said. "They found that his whole intestines were covered with a spindle cell tumor."

At one point, doctors told the Jeanes family Mark had lymphoma, but later abandoned the diagnosis. On Jan. 23, Mark's doctors believe they discovered what has been ailing the second-grader: idiopathic sclerosing mesenteritis.

The disease is extremely rare.

"If this is the right diagnosis, there have only been 17 reported cases since the 1920s. He'd be the 18th," Jeanes said.

The diagnosis is good news for the Jeanes family. At last, they believe they have an answer --- and a optimistic prognosis. Australian doctors have had success treating another case like Mark's.

Jeanes says Mark will be treated with "hopefully just long-term steroids and some chemotherapy drugs." She said Mark might be back in school within a few months, after his immune system strengthens.

"I miss him and wish he was here," said second-grade classmate Pierce Bradley. "I think it's pretty happy [Mark has a diagnosis] because I want to see Mark again. If he's getting better, I hope he can come back to school."

Willow Springs principal Sharyle Karren says the Buddy Run, a three-legged walk around the school's hallways, symbolized Mark's friendship and kindness to others. Early in the school year, Mark's class ran the mile. The second-grader was concerned about a classmate who typically finished alone.

"He asked his teacher if he could be that boy's buddy so he wouldn't have to run alone," Karren said.

Said second-grader Kache Williams, "He always helps people. If they fall down or anything, he'll help them up."

Willow Springs Elementary raised more than $2,100 for Mark, who has a limited insurance policy that covers about 10 percent of medical costs, which Jeanes says are "astronomical." Money is being accepted at America First Credit Union under Mark Jeanes' name.