Hutchinson ? Graduating from high school is a major accomplishment for anyone. But Brooke Barker’s family can be forgiven for thinking it’s even more of an accomplishment for her.

After a lifetime of battling illnesses, the 19-year-old Barker will graduate today from Hutchinson High School.

“This has been a dream of hers for a long time,” her mother, Lisa Barker, said.

Brooke was only 15 months old when she was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia — childhood leukemia. She took three years of chemotherapy but was able to start kindergarten as a healthy 5-year-old.

She had a relapse when she was a first-grader.

“The rest has been a wild journey,” Lisa Barker said.

In first grade, Brooke received donated bone marrow from her brother, Ross, who was then 9. The transplant went better than expected, and Brooke returned home well ahead of schedule.

But on Oct. 11, 1991, Brooke’s lungs reacted to the previous radiation treatments, and she was placed on a respirator. This time the only treatment was a double-lung transplant.

In September 1992, Brooke received a double-lung transplant in St. Louis. She stayed there for three months and returned home to Hutchinson just before Christmas.

Since then, Brooke has done her best to keep up with schoolwork, but numerous illnesses have slowed her down.

But the school district has worked with the family to help Brooke finish her senior year. Although she hasn’t attended classes on Hutchinson High School’s campus for about the past year and a half, she has continued studying at the district’s Learning Center to earn her credits toward graduation.

And to celebrate her hard work, like most graduates, Brooke will have a party.

“I think my mom’s done more for this party than she did with my brother’s,” Brooke said.