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Moraine Valley To Award Diploma To Chicago Ridge Man Dying From Cancer

(CBS) -- There's an update to a story we told you about yesterday: a Chicago Ridge woman has been trying to get her son's community college to award him his diploma before cancer takes his life.

21-year-old Eric Lorenz - bedridden now with a rare form of cancer - was just two weeks shy of finishing the requirements for his diploma in culinary arts, his mother says, when he was forced to quit because he was too sick.

Now Moraine Valley Community College now says it will give Eric his diploma.

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Eric's mother Jackie says she told Eric the news.

"He put a smile on his face and he opened his eyes. And he just smiled for me, which we haven't seen too much of in the past couple of weeks."

A spokesman for Moraine Valley Community College says they concluded Eric has earned two certificates: one in culinary arts management and one in baking and pastry arts.

Both will be presented to Eric Thursday in his home.

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