After a month of back pain that had gotten so bad her son could barely move or walk, doctors called Vickie Czapla and her husband and told them to pack a bag and get to Children?s Memorial Hospital.
At that point they knew the news would be horrible. A day before Thanksgiving in 2009, the Czapla?s 4-year-old son Jack was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia.
?It really is a parent?s worst nightmare. It?s just unimaginable,? said Vickie, of Mundelein.
Since then, Jack has had 26 months of chemotherapy, 20 spinal taps, six bone marrow aspirations and an allergic reaction so bad he nearly died. He still has more than a year of treatment left.
Through it all, 6-year-old Jack, now a first-grader at Washington School in Mundelein, has stayed positive and is more concerned about helping others than his own illness.
?He?s the most spirited kid you?ll ever meet,? Vickie said of her son.
But the boy who is sometimes known as Band-Aid Jack for his charitable donations to Children?s Memorial, or Super Jack for his courageous cancer fight, has a new title.
He?s been named the 2012 Boy of the Year by the Illinois Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and will serve as a role model and inspiration for others fighting cancer.
The Band-Aid nickname comes from one day when a nurse tried to give Jack a plain Band-Aid.
?Mom, we have a problem,? Jack said on the way home from the hospital. He was upset there weren?t more colorful, fun bandages for other sick kids like him.
So, Jack set up a lemonade stand at the local Jewel and collected more than 6,000 boxes of bandages and more than $2,000 to buy more.
?You don?t have a lot of kids who are sick who are out there doing a lemonade stand raising money for other kids who are sick,? said Pam Swenk, executive director of the Illinois Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. ?It just speaks of such tremendous bravery for a child dealing with this illness to want to give back. To have that kind of courage at such a young age is so inspirational.?
As Boy of the Year, Jack?s face will be on posters, magazine ads and taxicabs across the state promoting the group?s annual Man and Woman of the year campaign. Last year, it raised more than $600,000 in 10 weeks.
Aside from bringing bandages and candy for others at the hospital when he returns for his own treatments, Jack has become something of a local celebrity. He?s appeared on Stand Up for Cancer?s national broadcast in 2010 and on the Eric and Kathy radio show.
A few years later, people still send bandages to the Czaplas. Vickie said she probably has 800 boxes in her garage to bring to the hospital.
?The kids were always so sad,? Jack said of why he wanted to bring fun bandages to cheer them up.
Vickie said she thinks making other people happy keeps Jack positive through his health struggles.
?He does not let cancer get him down,? she said.
Besides his parents, Jack always has another ally: his twin sister Mackenzie.
?She stands up for her brother; she is always by his side. She goes to the hospital with him, brings a bucket when he?s throwing up,? Vickie said. ?She?s a pretty amazing kid.?
Jack has gotten his school involved in the fight, with Washington School participating in the Pennies for Patients fundraiser.
Each class has a collection box for spare change for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. A life-size cutout of Jack in the school reminds students and teachers that the cause is for one of their own.
?He puts things in perspective,? said school nurse Jackie Brenton. ?You realize what he?s going through and that your bad day isn?t so bad after all.?
Brenton said the Czapla family has been an inspiration and she?s hoping Washington can raise at least $1,000 to donate in his name.
?The school has been wonderful to us,? Vickie said. ?I didn?t realize how much you need your community until you go through something like this.?
As Jack continues to fight, he happily shows off his beads of courage, a program through Children?s Memorial Hospital that gives him beads for each step in his battle against cancer ? white for each chemotherapy treatment, yellow for each overnight trip to the hospital, black for each prick from a needle, and so on.
With hundreds of beads, the necklaces may weigh him down, but Jack proudly shows them off to classmates and friends.
Now in the maintenance phase of his treatment, Jack takes a chemotherapy pill daily, goes in for IV-fed chemotherapy once a month, and still has steroid treatments and spinal taps every few months. Additionally, he recently got over a five-week bout of pneumonia and battles other health issues brought on from the potent drugs used to rid his small body of cancer.
With treatment ongoing, even once Jack is healthy, the Czapla?s mission to raise awareness will continue.
?I?m not sure people give childhood cancer the amount of attention it needs,? she said. ?I hope one day I can make a difference because a lot more kids are affected than people realize.?
Every 10 minutes someone in the U.S. dies of a blood cancer, or 148 people every day, Swenk said. Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children under 20, she said.
Vickie journals about Jack?s experiences through his Caring Bridge site. Once his cancer battle is over, she?ll have it made into a book for him.
Cancer doesn?t define the Czapla family, though it has played a pretty big role for the past few years. Like any other family, they enjoy watching movies, coloring with the kids and gathering around the fireplace. The family motto ? live for today.
?Nobody knows what tomorrow is going to bring, so we need to be happy and live for today,? Vickie said. ?You could drive yourself crazy thinking about all the stuff that could go wrong, and you just can?t go there.?
Article source: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120221/news/702219957
Source: http://cancerkick.com/2012/02/21/mundelein-boy-fights-leukemia-smiles-gives-back/
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