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GREENSBORO — Christel Rey couldn’t sit back and just do nothing.

“Knowing that he didn’t want my child to fall through the cracks touched me,” Rey said of Luke Neal, a 28-year-old language arts teacher at Aycock Middle School whose body is rejecting a liver transplant he received two years ago.

Rey and the parents of other current and former students have set up a trust fund at Wells Fargo to help Neal with his rising medical costs and related expenses.

Neal, whose bills include co-pays for three straight weeks at UNC Hospitals last month, recently had a catheter placed in his neck for plasmapheresis, a two-week last-ditch treatment as doctors struggle to save his life.

Doctors are using the blood purification procedure to rid his blood of the antibodies now attacking him. They’ve sent a piece of his liver to a medical research hospital and are crossing their fingers.

The stress and the medications have induced wild mood swings, panic attacks and other medical complications, such as diabetes.

Neal is surprised that people are stepping up to take the stress off him.

“It’s not like I want to be out there in front of people, with lights on, yelling, 'Remember me and this thing I’m going through,’” Neal said about opening up to the help. “I’m grateful for the people who are there for me.”

The effort has also spawned TEAM LUKE T-shirts and other paraphernalia, with proceeds earmarked for expenses, including the co-pays for all of the pills he buys each month.

“I think we are all wanting to do what we can to help,” said Dari Mitchell, an artist and friend of Neal’s, who took a photo and turned it into an illustration for the items, which range from coffee mugs to hats.

Neal suffered acute liver failure in 2009, spending days in a medically induced coma before a transplant team could find a donor liver. He eventually got one and returned to teaching.

Neal’s most recent battle dates to the start of the current school year, when he noticed that his eyes were turning yellow.

The N.C. A&T graduate’s transplant team has spent the past few months trying to stabilize a debilitating attack on the liver, which has gone from near failure to mid-range rejection — and back and forth — over that time.

In the interim, Neal has tried keeping in touch with his class via the Internet.

That’s one of the reasons that Rey remains in awe of Neal, who taught her son, Tyius McKinney, when Tyius was in the sixth grade. Tyius is now a high school junior, but Neal has remained a mentor to him and to other students.

Neal, who had a difficult childhood, takes the boys on trips. He wants them to experience life outside Greensboro and their current situations — and hopefully be inspired.

This year, the school’s principal asked him to take on an all-male language arts class, which he calls the Cool Dude Academy. Neal selects books and texts they can relate to as a means of pushing them to excel.

When Rey heard that Neal’s liver was failing, she knew she couldn’t be the only one searching for a way to help him with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt.

His principal is holding his job but Neal has kept a wary eye on his sick days.

“We all say the children are our future, but how many people actually get involved and do something,” Rey said. “I was impressed that him being a 'young man,’ he was involved. Impressed that he cared enough to make a difference. Showing my son that no matter what situation you come from you can work hard and make a difference.

“I got involved with the fundraising efforts because I could only hope and pray that if I were in his shoes someone would care enough to help me,” Rey said.

Constance Vinson, whose twin girls were also in Neal’s class, knew other people were wondering how best to help Neal. The Wells Fargo fund, she said, would make it easy to donate.

“I knew alone, I could not be effective for Mr. Neal’s cause but collectively, we could make a difference,” Vinson said. “By keeping the conversation going, we bring awareness to Mr. Neal’s situation — as well as others who are suffering.”

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com